Thread. This is a story you won't hear on the news, but it's as important as anything you will read. Here is the story of one man who got lost in jail, and it says a great deal about our society. (1)
The man was arrested by sheriffs in Houston for possession of meth. He was kept in a cage before any legal proceedings unless he could pay a predetermined amount of cash--a problem across Texas. He was too poor to pay, so he stayed in jail. (2)
Court records show that cops, prosecutors, and judges knew that he had “been determined to have a mental illness or to be a person with an intellectual disability by the local mental health authority.” (3)
Even though no one believes that caging a human being with mental illness or intellectual disability for drugs will do any good for anyone in our society, human caging is literally the only response that police, prosecutors, and judges know. Their budgets depend on it. (4)
Based on court records, it looks like everyone forgot about the man. He was appointed a private contract lawyer, and there is no evidence that his lawyer even filed a single request for his release. Neither the DA nor the judge even bothered to bring him to court. (5)
This is common. In TX, many lawyers make huge $$ in a corrupt system where they work with judges to secure lucrative private contracts to represent the poorest people. These rich lawyers and judges block the creation of quality public defender offices. (6) texastribune.org/2019/08/19/unc…
Texas relies on cash bail and corrupt prosecutors, judges, and cops to keep people in jail unless they pay enough. They all benefit. Only the U.S. and the Philippines allow this kind of for-profit bail bond system to make profit from separating families before trial. (7)
Prosecutors and judges know that poor people face enormous pressure to plead guilty just to get out, and mass coercion to plead guilty is the only way to keep their assembly line efficient. Harris County is the exoneration capital of the world for wrongly convicted people. (8)
After six months, the man wrote a desperate letter to the court, begging someone to notice him. He begged to plead guilty and get probation. No one cared. He remained in a cage without any court hearings to release him for another month, then two months, then four, then six. (9) 
Finally, after 6 more months, the court had a hearing to hear from the man. He had been in a cage for more than a year even though he was presumed innocent of the drug possession. The court released him for free immediately as people were dying from covid in the jail. (9)
He has been free for a year, with no sign of any problems. But since he's free, they can't coerce him to plead guilty and there is a backlog of cases. So, prosecutors/bail industry are urging TX Legislature to expand cash bail. They know jailing coerces guilty pleas. (10)
I often post about jail deaths, but much of the pain and suffering inflicted by prosecutors/judges never makes the news. Bureaucrats show horrific indifference to human life in cases like this each day. There are 6,000 people just in the Houston jail who can't pay cash bail. (11)
The teams @CivRightsCorps @TxJailProject @FairDefense spend a lot of time searching through jail/court records to document these crimes against humanity. We are up against an entrenched and profitable culture of indifference. Read people's stories here: sheddinglight.in/texas/
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