HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Harris County Commissioners took another step Tuesday toward clearing its massive backlog of criminal court cases, unanimously approving eight new visiting judge positions.
Hurricane Harvey and the pandemic pushed the criminal case court backlog to the highest level in the county's history, around 100,000 cases in July 2021.
"The progress so far has been there, but it's been slower than we'd like,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
According to Judge Hidalgo, the county has already brought on five visiting judges to tackle the emergency response docket.
"These are the most dangerous accused, the oldest cases and having dedicated full judges working on getting those done,” she said.
Now they're adding eight more visiting judges, typically retired judges living in the Houston area, to that rotation to speed up progress. Judge Hidalgo expects they'll start in the next few weeks.
Six more associate judges will start this February.
"That will help the courts more broadly, and of course, millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars for overtime for prosecutors to triage the most dangerous and crucial cases, for administrative staff, for the DA to be able to prepare those cases, for body cam data and 911 phone data to be processed more quickly so that doesn't hold back trials,” said Judge Hidalgo.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg told KHOU 11 that her staff is spread thin.
"We need a comprehensive plan that fully funds each area that's impacted, from law enforcement to prosecutors to courts,” said Ogg.
Editor's Note: The following video was uploaded July 2021