Jail Population Management

Jail Population Management

The Criminal Justice Department (CJD) is a neutral entity, tasked by the Dallas County Commissioner’s Court to collaborate with all Criminal Justice Stakeholders and community agencies to address systemic issues, legislative changes, system bottlenecks, barriers, and help create solutions, to ensure timely and efficient justice.  Historically the Dallas County Criminal Justice System has operated in departmental silos.  Recently, substantial collaborative efforts have been established with internal and external partners to assist with jail population management to avoid justice delays and unnecessary costs to the county, while managing public safety.

The CJD Jail Population Management (JPM) Team is committed to taking a proactive approach to our daily work initiatives striving to go beyond simply reporting numbers and focusing on “who” is in custody and “why”.  The JPM team monitors and tracks data related to the Detention Early Warning Report (DEWR) bucket movement and explores expedited release options for low level offenders, 17-year-olds in custody, individuals in custody with the followings holds: immigration, parole, electronic leg monitoring (ELM)-posted bond, out of county/states, special program, bench warrant, and conflicting program holds which prevent release/transfer; competency concerns (state hospital returns), women in custody, unfiled/unindicted felony cases, paper ready over 45 days, Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) judgement processing delays, and individuals in jail without a court setting, in addition to other book in trends as they arise.

The JPM team believes that “Justice delayed is justice denied” ~William E. Gladstone and “You can’t expect what you don’t inspect” ~Dallas County Commissioner, John Wiley Price.  We are committed to working in good faith on behalf of human beings in custody, raising awareness to ensure timely case and individual movement throughout the criminal justice system.

LaShonda Jefferson

Assistant Director, Jail Population Management

Commissioners Court December 2023