Department: District Courts
Department Head/Elected Official: Richard Woods
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Position
Project ID (if applicable): 100001000001300
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
title
Request by the District Courts for approval to extend four grant-funded positions to June 25, 2025, and three Pretrial Services grant-funded positions to December 31, 2025 for the Court Backlog Reduction - ARPA Program using the remaining balance of $272,296.00 in ARPA funding provided by the Texas Office of Court Administration.
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Background and Discussion:
Hurricane Harvey (August 2017) and the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 and ongoing) severely impacted the entire criminal justice system. As a result, the courts' criminal case backlog reached the highest levels in the history of Harris County. These positions are critical to the execution of the District Courts overall strategy to address criminal case backlog via adding staff needed for the Emergency Relief Trial Dockets and staff needed to increase the volume and efficiency of processing warrants.
Expected Impact:
These positions provide the Harris County justice agencies with some of the resources needed to continue the new, and enhance existing, case backlog mitigation initiatives. The additional staff provide critical support to the three (3) Emergency Relief Trial Dockets (ERTD); and to help expedite the processing of warrants.
Alternative Options:
These initiatives tackle the problem of resolving the criminal backlog by adding resources needed across the difference justice agencies (i.e. DCA, DCO, PTS, and HCSO) to enhance the volume of work completed by the ERDs. Not investing these additional resources will result in a prolonged backlog.
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