Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

As noted in my last post, the Harris County Criminal Justice Center was shut closed on both Tuesday and today (Wednesday) of this week in the wake of heavy rains that hit late Monday night.  As per usual, our beloved CJC building failed to withstand the devastating power of nature.  The garage flooded.  The elevators stopped running.  The tunnels flooded.  They were on reserve power. Harris County employees were told not to come into work. They were then told that they had to take either Comp or Vacation time, instead. For the lawyers in the building (whether they be prosecutors or public defenders), this wasn't really that big of an inconvenience.  Most of them have plenty of comp time from the hours they work before eight, after five, or on the weekends.   They could also probably get away with doing some trial prep at home or doing some field investigations, if they were feeling ambitious. For support personnel, however, this wasn't really an option.  Although investig

I hope everyone weathered last night's crazy storm okay.  I don't know about y'all, but I was having some serious flashbacks to June 2001 and Tropical Storm Allison -- only this time I have flood insurance! Judge Kristin Guiney is reporting that the CJC is closed today, per the Administrative Judge.  The building is running on reserve power and apparently the basement garage is flooded. It doesn't sound quite as bad as Tropical Storm Allison, which forced the entire D.A.'s Office and all of the courts to relocate from the CJC for the better part of a year, but it doesn't sound good, either.

Unless you pay absolutely no  attention to Harris County politics, you are probably well aware that (now) former-Harris County Sheriff, Adrian Garcia resigned his position to run for Mayor of the City of Houston.  The move had been rumored for months, but since Garcia was required to resign before he could officially announce, he held off on making it official for some time. What had also been rumored for months was that Harris County Commissioners were planning on appointing Harris County Constable for Precinct Four, Ron Hickman, to fulfill Sheriff Garcia's unexpired term.  That was a smart move -- Hickman is very politically active in the Republican Party and has a good reputation.  He's also a great campaigner. Sheriff Hickman wasted no time in getting to work on cleaning up some of the messes created under the Garcia Administration -- focusing largely on problems that consistently plague the Harris County Jail.  Sheriff Hickman also set a goal for getting rid of some o

My great-uncle, Pete Newman, passed away last week at the age of 86.  He was the youngest brother of my paternal grandfather, Louis Newman.  I didn't know Uncle Pete all that well, but I always enjoyed talking to him whenever I got the chance, because he was wildly entertaining.  The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago, at his brother, Jim's, funeral.  He was sitting on his walker, smoking a cigarette and talking about grabbing a beer. The reason I'm writing this post is because I thought his obituary in the local paper was pretty entertaining, as well.  So I thought I would just pass it along. He was a damn good man.