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Commissioner Price urges audits of court performance as jail population, wait lists for state hospitals rise
Summary
Commissioner John Wiley Price used Tuesday’s Commissioners Court session to press for audits and greater oversight of court workloads and judicial performance as the county’s jail population and waits for state psychiatric hospitalization rise; county staff agreed to review authorities and reporting requirements under recent legislation.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price on Tuesday pressed for a systematic review of judicial performance and case processing after citing high jail population numbers, long wait times for state hospital placements and what he described as uneven courtroom productivity.
"We are booking in record high numbers," Price told the court, and then read statistics he said staff had compiled: "Over 54 percent of the individuals booking in have a suspected behavioral health flag," he said, and described state‑hospital wait lists that include 65 people waiting for maximum‑security hospital placement and 181 waiting for non‑maximum placements in the regional queue.
Price criticized the case-processing rate in some criminal dockets and flagged new reporting and auditing powers created by recent legislation. He cited Senate Bill 293 and related Office of Court Administration (OCA)…
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