Travis County Commissioners Court
May 15, 2007
Item 6
Number 6. Revised language, consider and take appropriate action regarding frencic lab services as follows. A, an interlocal agreement between the city of Austin and Travis County, and b, additional strategies to reduce backlog of lab tests. We have discussed this issue several times before. We asked ms. Pierce and others to city with the city of Austin and try to reach agreement, providing a sixth chemist at apd.
>> yes, sir.
>> in order for us to expedite the testing of suspected illegal drugs, because right now there is a long waiting period and a backlog of case that await test results.
>> that is correct.
>> creak.
>> kimberly pierce with criminal justice planning. This morning I have with me two new employees in our departments, aaron knell sin and kathy mclarity. Aaron has been working with us the last several months gathering stats on the drug lab. Kathy has also done research on the jail diversion steps. I'm going to turn it over to the reads.
>> okay, I'm erin.
>> good morning.
>> hi, how are you ?
>> good.
>> last Friday some of us employees from cjp, judge core nado, a few of the existers and other employees of Travis County t3ho %]ñy discuss the interlocal agreement as well as to tour the forensic ñilab. The lab has been running with oath three chemists for a long time. Planning to hire a fourth and fifth in June. Travis County has agreed to pay 5800 a month, excuse me, 69,600 a year for the lab to hire six chemists in July. As soon as the lab chemist is hired, the one recently retired is going to return for three months to work on some case only. Because the training process can take up to six months to complete, there will be no noticeable reduction in the docket until January of 2008 2008. The cost of the sixth chem chemists, however, will more than pay for itself. It's only 5800 a month, which would pay for four inmates to be housed for 30 days. The current turn around time for rocket docket labs is about 33 days.
>> 33 ?
>> yes.
>> all right. Let me ask you this real quick like. Can you tell me, there is anybody in place right now that can start this particular position hitting the ground running, would there be any delay, I guess, as far as making sure that we have a person in place? The reason I'm asking, it is rocket docket, we try to decrease the time persons have to spend here trying to get things resolved and actually have some kind of hands on control to reduce the jail population.
>> I think, sorry commission Commissioner.
>> my question is, what we are looking at here today, is this going to alleviate that fact of jail over overpopulation by looking at the rocket docket volume? And if so, is the person we are looking at to accommodate in this particular fte for the testing, this particular chemist, are they ready to come to work when ?
>> they are ready to come to work now. A --the sixth chemist should be on bother in July. The problem is the amount of time to be trained and certified.
>> okay. Go ahead. Sorry. Just wanted to get that out.
>> I not anticipate for us to see a decrease in our rocket docket case. The three chemists, depending on their knowledge and skills, one of them may be three or four months it takes to be trained and certified. The others could take all of six or seven months. So you really can't say it's going to be x number of days and we will be able to see the decrease. They are giving us an average, it's going to be about six months to get the three chemists trained. At that time, which we are looking at the first of the year, we should be able to see a significant decrease of the number of case on rocket docket.
>> is that the best scenario we can come up with as far as addressing the overload, as far as dealing with our rocket docket ?
>> in reference to apd issue with returning the drug case cases back to us, yes. They did in fact have a chem chemist from the valley that they offered the job to but he or show, doints really know, turned it down. That purpose had already been trained and certified. We were hoping to be able to get that person on bored but that is not the case now.
>> have they hired chemists four and five.
>> they have hired four and five. I think they start on the first, judge. They have confirmed they are coming on.
>> move approval of 8, which is the agreement.
>> second.
>> discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. B is intended for us to discuss what can we do to reduce the backlog of lab tests today. Any specific recommendations or do we need to carry this another week ?
>> we can carry another week week. Again, judge, this all stems from a lot of our pretrial defendants sitting in our county jail, and obviously, the rocket docket.
>> let's think outside the box.
>> okay.
>> because based on e-mails I've gotten from judges, situation is getting worse.
>> yes.
>> and before we talked about dps maybe doing something. I mean, my first thought was okay, any other drug labs within 100 miles, what is their turn around time.
>> okay.
>> what would be their terms and conditions. For our judges, I guess prosecutors, do we have any problems with credibility, integrity, et cetera, of sending some of this there, getting them to do the work and sending it back to us. It's a lot more complicated but if we can move it around if turn around can be dramatically reduced, I think we ought to consider it whether we do it or not. The problem is, we come up with the idea then we have to go to the prosecutor, judges, try to figure out whether it makes sense. That was my thought. Last time we were told, dps will take more time than apd is taking.
>> that's true.
>> or something to that effect.
>> uh-huh.
>> if that is so, it's not better than the status quo. But there are other counties around here smaller that have these same problems, hopefully they don't send their specimens to apd.
>> right. I don't thick thick--think that they do.
>> let me ask kimberly, or sara may know this.
>> sure.
>> how oft sñn it that the the--often is it that the chemist has though show up to the court? Do they kind of get pushed and interrogated by the defense ?
>> yes, at the time of trial yes.
>> they go to trial.
>> a large percentage of these case goz to trial.
>> mostly what they are looking for in the pretrial arena is just a confirmation from the lab that it is what the officer thought it was.
>> okay.
>> just a piece of paper they are looking for.
>> correct.
>> wouldn't make any difference if we had some drug lab in bexar county or whatever.
>> 90 percent of them.
>> okay.
>> of the 10 percent go to trial. Somebody has to show and say yes, I received that, yes, di the work, yes, here are the results.
>> I didn't understand that until he explained it to us, sometimes our people have to show up.
>> and that goes actually to more the employment practice practices and overtime and all that.
>> right.
>> one thing that I would like us to explore further, and something that you had brought up in an e-mail exchange, you know, thinking outside the box on our bonding and pretrial release policies so that we can get, we are very innovating now. I don't want to suggest we are not. We are very innovating now in our pretrial release and bonding procedures. There may be some more innovation that we can come up with as far as essentially starting sentences early through pretrial release.
>> sure.
>> in anticipation of what will happen once it actually hits the docket.
>> we were talking this morning, we are willing to try just about anything to help out the situation. If we need to roll this item another week or have a working group and come back to the court with several recommendations, we can certainly do that as well.
>> sounds like pretrial services, the judges, the prosecutors, as well as the bonding attorneys and the bonds desk, we might even want to, you know, dare I say it, bring the bail bond bondman in.
>> they are a partner.
>> the bail bondman in my mind, having dealt with it a lot, are an extra governmental entity that keeps us having from jail overcrowding. That is how they are supposed to work.
>> irma.
>> Travis County pretrial services. I did want to mention that back in August of '06, we did start an initiative in regards to missile docket and rocket docketment we get a list about twice a month now in terms of individuals that prosecutors are recommending probation for. We reevaluate those denied bonds. At the end or mid April we did an assessment and we interviewed or re reinvestigated or reevaluated about 106 of those cases and were only able to get about 20 out. You have to remember that we are looking at the different standards that we have in place to look at a person for relieving the personal body. There are certain criteria and parameters we look at in terms of stability, references, criminal background checks on them, that we can't just automatically because they have been in jail so many days, we are going to take the chance and risk in getting the individuals out. So through the missile docket and knowing that they have been recommended for probation, we will take that third or fourth look. By this time we have look at that bond for the fourth time. And we make an assessment, securing the safety of the community and the risk that that person might post, but knowing that they are going to eventually get probation, we will get them out on personal bond with certain conditions. It remains under judge core nado's 's magistrate's court so that the court setting continues to happen quickly and they get placed on probation. That process is still in place right now.
>> some of those folks, I mean, this is one question that hang out there for me. A lot of those folks aren't appropriate for personal re rerecogbonds but I won't where they are not going on on flat bond.
>> resources or fñdge. A lot of those might have court appointed torb. Maybe they are waiting to see what is going to be the best bargaining situation. At several other meeting we talked about it's hard to break certain trends in terms of defense attorneys and prosecution and how do you look at a case. That's come up several times.
>> that might be something to look at, what the inter interplay is there between flat bond, personal recogni azance.
>> that is the thinking out outside the box.
>> are those resources, 15 of them, do something with the 15are --
>> right, are we setting the bond too high. Looking at that stuff. Might turn out that it's worth of the risk lowering the bond with the paying bonds man that you can rely upon to keep the person in the system. Or pay a significant amount, making it possible for us to go back and get them.
>> that is your thinking outside the boxbox. If we can coin that phrase.
>> and pretrial services, I'd like to believe that we are receptive to kind of looking outside the box.
>> you all have always been receptive.
>> you looked under the box.
>> around the box.
>> so many of you working in such a little box.
>> that is still the case.
>> how about getting with the necessary parties and have this on back next and have a discussion of specific recommendations.
>> absolutely.
>> welcome aboard both of you.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 8:00 AM