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 are held seven (7) days a week, Sunday through Saturday mornings, and the accused are represented by the Public Defender's Office.

When the program was launched, as part of the collaboration with other departments, and to the County's fiscal burden, the Public Defender's Office revised its staffing plans to secure legal secretarial staffing on weekends and holidays, using a "DIMS" overtime model.  After almost two years of operation, it has become clear that more consistent legal secretarial staffing is needed for weekends and holidays to better support the attorneys handling 48 Hour Bond Review Hearings and better serve the clients they represent.  As a result, and in coordination with the Human Resources Department, the Public Defender's Office will be asking the Court's approval to request a grant amendment form TIDC to add a part time Legal Secretary Intermediate, who will work the majority of the weekend/holiday shifts, reducing reliance on the overtime model.  In addition to having the consistency of the same team members for these shifts, the amendment will also reduce the legal secretarial staffing costs because it will address regular hours worked.