|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Hidalgo County has added another tool in their ever-growing arsenal created to address the chronic jail overcrowding issue that’s been plaguing the county for decades.
Last Monday, the Hidalgo County’s Board of Judges appointed the chief of the Hidalgo County’s Public Defender’s Office Larry Esparza as the county’s first-ever magistrate judge.
Magistrates are involved in the preliminary stages of a criminal proceeding which typically involve an adult accused of a criminal offense. They handle pretrial motions and hearings in civil and criminal cases in most districts.
“What I’ll be doing is working with district court judges, all of the judges there at the [Hidalgo County Courthouse] to help address their case overload … mostly the jail cases,” Esparza said. “In addition to that, I’ll be doing magistrations which are individuals initially arrested, setting bonds, hearing bond reductions and so forth.”
The chronic overcrowding problem at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center has been haunting the county for well over 20 years and has cost county taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
Hidalgo County will be paying nearly double this year what they paid last year which will be over $13 million.
Esparza has been practicing criminal defense for over 20 years and says he’s prepared for the challenge that comes with attempting to alleviate the overcrowding problem which won’t be an easy task.
“It’s not an eight-to-five [job], it’s 24/7 maybe,” Esparza said.
He explained that he’ll be available to do magistrations or to hold hearings whenever is necessary for him.
“What I’ll be doing is working with district court judges, all of the judges there at the [Hidalgo County Courthouse] to help address their case overload … mostly the jail cases,” Esparza said. “In addition to that, I’ll be doing magistrations which are individuals initially arrested, setting bonds, hearing bond reductions and so forth.”
Esparza hopes that working with all the parties involved will resolve the overcrowding issue or at least the backlog of criminal cases, a side effect of the recent pandemic.
“Overcrowding has been an issue for a long time but … COVID created a backlog,” Esparza said. “They weren’t picking juries because of space confinement and so forth, so a lot of the cases, individuals who were requesting trial, were not able to get into the courtroom because we couldn’t bring juries in.”
The newly appointed magistrate explained that similar sized and bigger counties usually have two or three magistrates to address the same kinds of issues.
He hopes the county will consider hiring more magistrates if he’s successful in this endeavor.
Hidalgo County District Attorney Toribio “Terry” Palacios is also tackling overcrowding by handing out plea deals to defendants who are pending trial, though without the possibility to appeal.
Similar to plea bargains, the process of handing out a bond to someone charged with a criminal offense includes looking into their criminal history and background, whether they’re a danger to society, the victim or victims and so on.
Hidalgo County is also renting out a jail in Willacy County in efforts to alleviate the overcrowding, which is included in the $13 million county taxpayers will be paying this year.
Esparza said they’ll be monitoring their progress using statistics that show where the county’s at today to see whether they are truly addressing the overcrowding issue by bringing down the backlog.
“I wanna do my part and I think it’s a wise decision on the county’s part to do the same and try and resolve some of those issues by bringing this position on board,” Esparza said.
