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Ed Gonzalez

@SheriffEd_HCSO

Jun 4

Our HCSO jail is full. Harris County law enforcement does a great job of proactive policing, but offenders must be tried swiftly and prosecuted to the fullest. If found guilty, they need to be sent to prison quickly, sending a message that persons will be held accountable. 1/5

Also freeing space for other offenders to be incarcerated Long delays only keeps our local jail full, which operationally isn’t sustainable. We have limited capacity resulting in us having to temporarily outsource defendants to other jails, but that is not a long-term fix. 2/5

Court dockets need to move faster. I support being flexible w some non-violent/non-person defendants that pose no apparent threat to the community, but let’s also draw the line with serious, violent, repeat offenders, they need to stay in jail period. Everyone deserves their 3/5

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Ed Gonzalez

@SheriffEd_HCSO

Mar 29, 2020

A common suggestion is that having defendants in jail during a pandemic may actually be safer: isolated & can be quarantine. I want to share some thoughts regarding the challenge: (1)-it’s impossible to practice social distancing and heightened hygiene when 8,000 people are

detained in a close space. #COVID19 is extremely contagious and spreads through the air and from contaminated surfaces. When one person tests positive, there will be dozens more within a day or two. If even 20% of the jail population is infected, and that is a conservative

estimate, it will overwhelm the jail’s limited resources. (2)-we do not have the space or facilities to adequately quarantine people who test positive, nor do we have the medical facilities to respond to a serious case of #COVID19. Anyone who requires hospitalization, as 10% of

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Ed Gonzalez

@SheriffEd_HCSO

Feb 19, 2020

https://twitter.com/artacevedo/status/1230124404237127680

This individual had the means to post a bond. Research shows that when cash is the primary determinant on who gets in and out of jail, it doesn’t make us safer. Decisions should be guided by effectively assessing “risk” and research. With money involved, too many folks that may

https://twitter.com/artacevedo/status/1230124404237127680

not be a high risk, sit in jail, while high risk offenders can pay their way out of jail. This is why we should move to an “intentional system of detention”; we currently do not have that. Nobody wants any defendant to be released pretrial only to further their criminal careers

while we are trying them for any particular charge. In a model bail system, based on intentionality, such a person would likely be held without bail period. But when we look at the details, we see that it is not so easy simply because TX is currently in-between systems. I

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Ed Gonzalez

@SheriffEd_HCSO

Oct 10, 2019

IMO, we need increased dialogue to address the impacts of a traumatized society. Pause for a moment and reflect on this: the vast majority of us are walking around with some form of trauma. We have lived through events that have traumatized in unimaginable ways.

Mass killings, natural disasters, attacks in schools and places of worship. Inner-city violence and the 90,000 children in our county each year that have a patent locked up in our local jail. Certain films now require increased police presence.

Do you think survivors in El Paso might be harboring some trauma? What about our first responders that experience firsthand traumatic and horrifying incidents daily? Surely there’s an impact to our collective psyche. I don’t have the answers, but perhaps we start today on

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