Texas Attorney General Seeks to Overturn Harris County Misdemeanor Bail Reforms and Return to Unconstitutional Practices

Houston, TX  — In 2016, Maranda ODonnell filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of tens of thousands of impoverished individuals arrested for misdemeanors in Harris County, challenging the County’s practice of detaining people due solely to their inability to pay small amounts of cash to secure their release. That system destroyed people’s lives, causing them to lose jobs, homes, cars, and sometimes custody of their children, all simply because they were poor and could not pay a few hundred dollars to a for-profit bail company. 

Then-Chief Judge Lee Rosenthal found these practices violated constitutional principles of equal protection and due process and were unnecessary to promote public safety or prevent flight. She issued a landmark preliminary injunction ending these practices, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed her extensive factual findings and core legal rulings. 

In 2019, the County, Judges, Sheriff, and Plaintiffs reached a watershed agreement to resolve the lawsuit, overhauling the County’s misdemeanor bail system and creating a new local rule that has increased pretrial liberty, increased community safety, saved the County millions of dollars annually, and set a national standard followed by jurisdictions across the country.

Today, six years later, the State Attorney General filed a motion to intervene in ODonnell signaling his intention to move to vacate the Consent Decree. The AG is asking the Court to require Harris County to revert to the prior unconstitutional cash-based system in which people are detained unless they can pay bail bondsmen cash to be released, an approach shown to help no-one but the for-profit bail industry. 

The AG’s motion echoes Trump’s baseless August 25 executive orders purporting to punish local reforms in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere that allow for people to be released without an upfront cash payment. The AG’s move appears to be part of a nationwide effort to roll back the extensive progress that impacted communities have achieved toward reducing unnecessary pretrial detention and increasing safety. Plaintiffs will strongly oppose this effort and will defend the Consent Decree, which has been a resounding success.

The ODonnell Consent Decree is a national model for increasing pretrial liberty, reducing racial disparity in pretrial detention, and promoting public safety. By preventing tens of thousands of people annually from being detained unnecessarily, Harris County serves as an example of successful bail reform and has inspired numerous jurisdictions across the country to reduce or eliminate cash bail without compromising community safety.

“The State Attorney General is trying to invalidate a federal order and force Harris County back into an oppressive system in which people are jailed or released based on how much money they have, tearing apart families and communities in the process.” says Travis Fife, Staff Attorney, Texas Civil Rights Project. “We are all safer when presumptively innocent people remain with their families instead of being confined to the deadly Harris County jail.”

“The federal courts have already held that it violates the Constitution to make a person’s pretrial liberty dependent on whether they have cash. A change in state law that violates the Constitution is no basis for reverting to a failed, discriminatory system that cost the County both money and lives,” said Elizabeth Rossi, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Civil Rights Corps. 

Learn more about the case and find relevant documents HERE. 

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Civil Rights Corps is a non-profit organization that challenges systemic injustice in the U.S. legal system. Through innovative civil rights litigation, advocacy, and public education, we aim to re-sensitize the legal system and our culture to the injustice and brutality that characterizes the contemporary U.S. legal system. Our work is guided by a commitment to the people and communities harmed by policing, surveillance, incarceration, discrimination, and the criminalization of poverty.

The Texas Civil Rights Project is boldly serving the movement for equality and justice in and out of the courts. We use our tools of litigation and legal advocacy to protect and advance the civil rights of everyone in Texas, and we partner with communities across the state to serve the rising movement for social justice. We undertake our work with a vision of a Texas in which all communities can thrive with dignity, justice and without fear.