AUSTIN, Texas — Some local justice advocates feel Travis County is directly responsible for its own jail overcrowding.
Local criminal justice advocates argue the number of people in the Travis County jail should be much lower.
They say if the county focused more on addressing poverty, homelessness, mental health and substance abuse issues, there would be fewer people behind bars and the county wouldn't have to hire more staff to deal with the influx. The proposed budget includes adding 36 new corrections officers.
"Instead of spending more and more money to lock people up and police them while they're there, perhaps we can invest money in getting these people out," said Kandace Vallejo, director of Youth Rise Texas.
Advocates argue far too often, low-income people arrested for low-level crimes end up stuck in jail.
"We're holding people in jail before trial who can't pay a bond, who we wouldn't even sentence to time in jail if convicted," said Nathan Fennell, of the Texas Fair Defense Project.
That's why they say more pretrial services are needed. It's something county officials say they're working on. The budget includes adding seven pretrial services positions.
"They figure out what the risk is for letting this person go on their own personal recognizance to come back and be held accountable for whatever they were arrested for," said Sarah Eckhardt, Travis County Judge.
The county also says that as corrections officers are added, overall costs will fall.
"What our planning and budget office found is that the overtime that we were burning because of the need for officers was more costly than simply providing more officers," said Eckhardt.
A public hearing on the budget will be held Tuesday before commissioners vote on it.