Travis County Commissioners Court
February 13, 2007
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. This item is intended to give residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda. Nobody had signed in when I passed the table a few moments ago. Would anyone like to -- to give testimony under citizens communication today? If so please come forward. And if you would give us your name, we will be happy to receive your comments. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe and Commissioners court. My name is latrice cook, the executive director of for
>> [indiscernible] incorporated. I -- I'm -- I just happened to walk in the door. I was thinking that I was going to have kind to kind of get myself prepared.
>> we will call you back in 10 minutes, is that better?
>> thank you.
>> I can tell by your face this is real important information, so we want to -- you to be organized.
>> all right.
we did have a citizen here for citizens communication. And let's call that back up to give her an opportunity to give comments.
>> Thank you so much, judge Biscoe and this court for giving me this opportunity to address you, my name is latrice cook, the executive director for minorities in equality, liberty and justice. Our organization originated in bastrop county and has since come into Travis County to provide assistance to families and the children of incarcerated parents with an emphasis on those persons who are on parole. Currently our office has been bombarded by persons who have become familiar with our organization through word of mouth to aid them in various situations while they are being held in the county facilities. Many of their concerns are the fact that they have been in the facility, del valle mainly, for at 90 days are more, yet to receive a visit by their appointed counsel. Out of the 21 requests we received in two days time for instance only two of them are directly related to being in custody due to a blue warrant issued by the state or parole violation. The other remaining who are also on parole have had a hold placed on them since being arrested. The reason I am before you is to ask you to please look into the process of that court appointed council, which is governed by -- if they are governed by the families of these inmates should not be treated disrespectfully. Not responded to or dapg gelled along -- dangled along because the attorneys feel they aren't being paid sufficiently to warrant the family member being responded to about being incarcerated or any of their charges. Attorney-client privilege is one thing. But after obtaining --
>> [indiscernible] additionally, there needs to be a written policy adopted or revisited by this county that requires the attorney to make eye contact with the person that they are representing at least monthly regarding the status of their case. They need to be held accountable for not providing the client with the best possible defense available due to them not receiving compensation, that they feel is sufficient from the county. Negotiation is good. But when you are accepting a criminal conviction on your name for the opportunity to get back on the street, which a lot of these guys are doing, because of the rocket docket or because they have other things that are -- that are against them, they will -- they will take a lesser charge just to get free. But it's still -- it still is giving them a conviction on their record. And this is real serious. Because what's happening is I have at least three letters that are from people that are in custody that are 17 years old. It's a serious -- one or two of which are currently in high school. They are facing felony charges that possibly even if they cut a deal, that they will still end up not being able to continue successfully
>> [beeping] with their lives. I'm sores. I just want to say this one thing. The legislature is relentlessly pursuing the Texas department of criminal scruses and the probation system for alternatives to incarceration as well as restructuring the parole process to release persons for being held age inordinate amount of time for non-violent offenses, also reducing or eliminating those persons who are revoked for non-violent off fences which include possession of controlled substance charges. Travis County has a big push about reentry. But in order for reentry to be successful, it has to start at this level and the only way for reentry to really be -- reentry to really be successful is that you all start with the entry process. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> can I ask you a couple of questions.
>> > sure.
>> I agree with you that reentry is only successful actually if we start at the pretrial level. Have the people who contacted you also contacted the state bar? To complain about their representation?
>> one of the things that we do is we try to acclimate people to what they can do without charging them for those services, as you maybe aware the state bar has a vigorous process. I have informed the people to start writing complaints on the attorneys. But if it's -- if you all have like a -- a listing that you all use to appoint attorneys, it ought to be something at this level that holds them accountable for the representation that they are giving these people. What's happening to these families is they are being end none dated and literally for lack of a better word raped in this process financially. A lot of these people don't have money. And so that's what our organization does. We try to advise them without being legal, you know, counsel, trying to advise them of alternatives to having to spend the money and let them know of different ways that they can mitigate their situation through -- through this process.
>> is it the district judges that handle the list of court appoints?
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic] that's what I was turning the question back to y'all. I'm not aware of any policy or procedure that this court has for handling the --
>> [multiple voices]
>> seems to me the best thing that can happen is if those defendants will authorize you to release their names to us, we can find out whose court they are in and notify the judge of that court.
>> and our process of intake --
>> these are court appointed lawyers.
>> yeah. There's not a -- there's not a fee, is there?
>> yes.
>> where there are court appointed lawyers, we can help out. If you retain your own lawyer, that's a different genre.
>> if you can let us know the name of the defendant, we will notify the judge in that case, that's who made the appointment.
>> also the families can notify the judge as well, saying we are getting substandard representation for our loved one in jail. Probably the judge on that case is probably the -- the person with the biggest hammer over the defense attorney.
>> but there's not a fee to the family. It's all court appointed.
>> [laughter] --
>> [indiscernible]
>> that comes out of the budget that you all help establish each year. There's no control that this court --
>> the best and fastest impact is if they will authorize you to share the letter with us, we will share the letter with the judge who appointed the lawyer. Other than that, we will contact court administration, get the name of the lawyer representing that client, let the judge know.
>> there are several. I would be more than happy to. That's a part of our -- of our old form process. I think there needs to be an investment by this county in positions and opportunities to represent this population in a -- in a -- in a big manner. We just need to make the investment for representation for this population because they do deserve the opportunity at having a successful life.
>> thank you.
>> thank you so much for this time.
>> thank you for doing what you are doing.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 12:06 PM