Houston state Sen. Joan Huffman filed a bill this month to stop a Harris County practice that local officials say is not occurring.
The Republican’s Senate Bill 40 would ban political subdivisions from sending public funds to nonprofits that pay bail bonds for criminal defendants.
In a news conference Wednesday morning, Huffman said the bill was filed in response to her office’s findings that Harris County had issued 311 individual payments to one such national nonprofit totaling $2.1 million. The practice, she argued, amounted to “taxpayer funded bailing out of criminals” that was taking money away from public safety and victims’ services.
The only problem: Both Harris County and the nonprofit — The Bail Project — say Huffman is mistaken.
The payments, they said, are refunds.
Bail is a longtime legal practice that uses a cash payment to ensure defendants charged with a crime show up for court proceedings.
The bail amount is set by a judge, and allows a defendant to avoid jail before trial, which can enable the individual to assist with their defense and continue working to support themselves or family.
An individual who is unable to pay the full amount can pay a percentage of the bail – typically 10 percent – to purchase a bond from a bail bond agency. That bond is then used to pay the bail.
If a defendant does not show up for court dates, the bail is forfeited and the defendant can be arrested and jailed.
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If a defendant shows up for his or her court proceedings, the bail is refunded to whoever paid it.
The payments by the Harris County Auditor’s Office to The Bail Project were simply refunds for defendants the nonprofit bailed out who went on to appear at all of their court dates, the same as if the defendants had paid the bail themselves and were refunded, said Natalie Michailides, executive director of Harris County Pretrial Services.
“No taxpayer dollars were used to compensate any organization for services to pay the bail for a person accused of a crime,” Michailides said.
The Bail Project stopped its bail assistance program in Texas in 2023, instead focusing on policy advocacy, said Emma Stammen, a policy strategist for the California-based nonprofit.
Refund payments that have recently been sent by the county to The Bail Project are from the resolution of cases that date back to prior to the nonprofit ceasing its operations in Texas, Stammen said.
The Bail Project paid the bail of 1,400 defendants in Texas, including Harris County, from Oct. 2020 until ceasing operations in June 2023, she said.
“It could just be a misunderstanding of how bail works in Texas and the refund process, but also Sen. Huffman has been vocally antagonistic to bail funds in the past, as evidenced by the way they were talking about us in the hearing,” Stammen said. “I also think it’s a distraction from the important work that bail funds are doing in Texas.”
Prior to being elected to the Senate in 2008, Huffman was a criminal district court judge in Harris County.
Advocates, including The Bail Project, argue cash bail is unnecessary to ensure a defendant returns to court and instead serves to jail poor people who are innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty. The Bail Project offered bail assistance to certain defendants free of charge as a way of gathering evidence that the practice is unnecessary, Stammen said.
The nonprofit reported that 90 percent of the defendants it assisted appeared for all of their court dates.
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Huffman filed Senate Bill 1048 on Feb. 3 to allow residents to seek injunctive relief if they believe the political subdivision they live in is donating taxpayer dollars to bail out defendants.
The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, and Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham. The bill was passed out of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee Wednesday by a 6-0 vote, and is now awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.
Even if approved by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, Stammen said she does not believe the measure would affect any future work by the nonprofit in Texas because it has never been given taxpayer money.
“The money coming back to us is our own money that we use to pay our clients’ bail,” Stammen said. “I think the only way it would affect us is if it causes general confusion or slows down the refund process or confuses people into thinking they can sue.”
Prior to a Wednesday morning news conference where both Huffman and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick complained about the alleged practice, Stammen said representatives from the nonprofit spoke to members of Huffman’s staff to correct the record.
“We’re going to put an end to taxpayer-funded bailing out of criminals, using the same money that’s supposed to be used for prosecutors, for police, law enforcement and for protecting our victims,” Huffman said during the news conference.
Huffman’s Senate office did not respond to requests to clarify her comments.
Incorrect information surrounding the refunds to The Bail Project first began circulating on X, formerly Twitter, after an anonymous account posted screenshots from the Harris County Auditor’s Office’s vendor payment database last August.
The auditor’s database shows 305 payments to The Bail Project totaling $2,085,250.80 that date back to Feb. 2022. The most recent payment was issued on Monday for $19,950, according to the database.
“Payments to The Bail Project listed on the Auditor’s Office webpage are refunds of cash bonds paid by The Bail Project and are not expenditures of taxpayer provided monies,” Harris County Auditor Mike Post wrote in an email Thursday.
The payments also do not have a supplier number assigned to them, which is issued to any vendor that provides services to the county, Michailides said.
Huffman’s comments at the news conference followed a Senate committee meeting where she presented a package of legislation that, as a whole, would increase the opportunities for state judges to jail defendants without bail.
Representatives from The Bail Project testified against the legislative package during a Wednesday morning Senate committee meeting.
Harris County, which has struggled with overcrowding in its jail and elevated violent crime rates since the pandemic, was used as a frequent punching bag by Republicans arguing for stricter bail conditions during the meeting.
Harris County judges first began allowing defendants charged with certain misdemeanors to be released without paying cash bail in 2019. That came after the county was placed under a consent decree by a federal judge who said the county’s strict cash bail schedule was violating poorer defendants’ rights.
Tough-on-crime advocates have argued the change has made the county less safe. However, a 2022 report by a court-appointed monitor on the progress of the consent decree found the number of misdemeanor cases in Harris County declined by about 20 percent.
Data Reporter José Luis Martínez contributed to this story.
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