Criminal Justice stakeholders, including the Council of Judges, County Court Administration, District Clerk's Office, County Clerk's Office, Sheriff's Office, Office of  Criminal Justice Coordination, Executive Director for Justice Support and Community Service, District Attorney's Office, County Attorney's Office, and Public Defender's Office have been working to examine El Paso County's pretrial processes, including methods of setting bond, in terms of best practice models and the ongoing litigation in Harris, Dallas, and Galveston Counties, as well as across the nation.

One of the identified options to enhance El Paso's system is the implementation of a hearing to review the bonds of each individual, who has not been released on bond, forty-eight (48) hours after the person was arrested and appeared before Jail Magistrate.  These 48 hour hearings will be held seven (7) days a week, Sunday through Saturday mornings, and the accused will be represented by the Public Defender's Office.  In addition the Bond 48 grant request creates a Indigent Defense/ Magistration Coordinator to facilitate the 48 hour bond hearings and enhance El Paso County's compliance with, and review of Indigent Defense appointment procedures.

The Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) annual discretionary grant program offers an opportunity for the County to phase in part of the cost of the bond review hearing representation over a five year period, through their stair-step funding model.  Under the model, Counties' responsibilities increase annually from an initial 20% cash match, until the County funds the full program in year five and beyond.

Account will be set-up at the time the grant is awarded and approved by Commissioners Court.

The grant award is in the amount of in the amount of $353,736.   A 20% grant match in the amount of $88,434 is required for this initial year of grant funding.

Budget and Fiscal Policy has included the grant match in the proposed FY2020 budget under GF-GADM-XFER OUT-GRANT MATCH

The Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) Competitive Discretionary Grant Program was developed to assist Counties in developing and implementing enhancements to local indigent defense programs, especially those which will serve as models for other counties.  This item is the for the first year of the program, requiring a 20% cash match.   TIDC utilizes a stair step grant match structure, with match levels increasing by 20% per year, which culminates with the program becoming a full County program in the fifth year.  Budget and Fiscal Policy has indicated that if the grant is awarded, it will need to identify funds for the 20% match in the FY 2020 budget.  Understanding that the Court had placed a half year of funding for other departments fiscal requirements for the 48 Hour Bond Hearings Project in contingencies, we reached out to TIDC to explore the possibility of delaying the grant program's start for six months.  TIDC's staff indicated that they did not foresee an issue with delaying the program start for six months, and confirmed that if we were to have a delayed start that TIDC would adjust the grant award year to run from April 2020 through March 2021, reflecting the time when program operation begins.