A list of all incarcerated people in the county is updated hourly on a Web site.
Bell County attorney Jeff Parker has taken the data from Thursday at 8:30 p.m. and sorted it to show information such as average bail amounts for felony and misdemeanor charges.
Several defense attorneys saw the chart this week. Most who saw it complained about high bail amounts.
“By setting high bond amounts, they are keeping bond companies fully employed but are making people need court-appointed attorneys because they can’t afford to hire an attorney after paying their bond,” Parker said. “Then the taxpayers get to pay for it.”
Attorney John Galligan said it is common for bail hearings to reduce bail amounts by 80 to 90 percent.
On Sept. 13, Richard Toon Jr., a Fort Hood soldier accused of murder, had his bail reduced from $1 million to $25,000. That’s a decrease of nearly 98 percent.
His attorney argued that Toon was not a flight risk and could go back to work until his case could be resolved.
Judges are expected to follow five basic rules when setting bail amounts:
n Consider the facts of the case.
n Bail should be sufficient to protect any victims of the crime.
n It should not be oppressive.
n The purpose of bail is to ensure that the person charged shows up for court.
n The financial means of the person should be considered.
Parker believes the financial means of people charged with crimes in Bell County is not given enough serious consideration. He said it is a factor that influences overcrowding at the jail.
Judge Ted Duffield, justice of the peace in Precinct 1, sets most of the bail amounts in Bell County. He meets with prisoners face-to-face before setting bail.
Duffield was at a conference and unavailable for comment, but in past interviews he has stressed that bail is primarily to make sure the defendant shows up for his court date.
In addition to showing average bail amounts, Parker’s chart appears to show that on Thursday 756 inmates were in Bell County Jail, which has a capacity of 706. Jail Administrator Bob Patterson said the inmate number includes those who the county has shipped to other counties because of capacity issues at the jail.
“We had 60 people farmed out to Milam and Limestone counties (on Thursday),” he said.
County leaders hope to reverse that situation and rent space out to other counties when the new jail on Loop 121 is finished and the downtown jail is refurbished.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspected the new jail late last week. The inspection is one of the final steps necessary before inmates can be moved in.
The new jail should begin receiving inmates by the first of the year, assuming it passes inspection. The results are expected early this week.
