Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

Editor Note:  I got a request from a friend in law enforcement who asked to write a blog post focusing on changes at the HCSO.   I have many friends who walk the halls of the CJC, conducting their daily business.  Some always seem to have a smile on their face, and some have that eternal scowl.  However, recently, I noticed that people’s nonverbal cues have become disheartening.  I work for another part of the justice system, and have been a part of the justice system for over 20 years.  I have been a part of quite a few regime changes, and have been an onlooker to several regime changes at the CJC.   Murray has been quite eloquent, and has usually been on-point, in regards to the politics at the CJC.  However, even he realizes he is not an expert in the politics of the law enforcement side of the CJC.  So, I decided to step up to the computer and write some comments. When Adrian Garcia took office years ago, those two words from the beginning of my post were very prevalen

Walking through the halls of the CJC this morning brought a very unwelcome feeling of deja vu.  Eight years have passed since November 5, 2008, but there were many unpleasant similarities between that election's "morning after" and today. To be fair, there were some minor differences, too.  In 2008,  we prosecutors had known since May that someone from outside the D.A.'s Office would be taking over -- we just had to wait until November to find out exactly who  that person would be.  We had a politically neutral caretaker in the form of Ken Magidson, who was there to facilitate the incoming Pat Lykos Adminstration, and he had been a calming force in the transition.  We had been through so much turmoil earlier in the year that Lykos' victory seemed somewhat anti-climactic. And then the morning after arrived. The rumors started swirling immediately.  Rumors of who was getting fired.  Rumors of who was getting hired.  Rumors of demotions, promotions, and policy

I think it is safe to say that almost everyone who practices within the Harris County Criminal Justice System is disappointed in at least some element of how the 2016 election turned out this year. For some time now, we've known that a Democratic sweep was a very real possibility, but I don't know that any of us realized what a tremendous margin was coming.  When you lose judges like Kristin Guiney, Ryan Patrick, Stacey Bond, and Brock Thomas, it becomes pretty clear that our little world is ultimately controlled by voters who know nothing of the judges' reputations or what they've done to make this System better. Devon Anderson's loss was a foregone conclusion.  Even if she had been in the good graces of the Republican Party, it wouldn't have saved her from the ultimate outcome of what happened tonight. The straight ticket voters who pulled the Democratic lever (as of this writing) outnumbered the Republican straight ticket voters by over 65,000 vot