Harris County Taxpayers Indigent Defense Budget Skyrockets

Over the last three fiscal years Harris County has seen massive cost increases for indigent defense, or county-provided criminal defense services for persons accused of a crime that cannot afford to pay for their own legal representation. In the 2023 and the annualized 2022 budgets, the County averaged $82.3M in indigent defense costs annually. In the fiscal year of 2024 alone, Commissioners Court approved a supplemental appropriation of $29.1M due to cost overruns for court appointed attorney fees, for a total projected spend of $102.2M. The unanticipated costs are attributed to a combination of significant increases in the number of cases, as well as a change in fee structure approved by District and County judges in fiscal year 2023. The chart above illustrates actual expenses for court appointed attorneys representing indigent defendants over the last five years. In 2025 Harris County will budget more for indigent defense spending overall, but, at the direction of Commissioners Court, funding will be reallocated from Court Appointed Attorneys towards the Public Defender’s Office. The Public Defender’s FY25 Budget will include an additional $11.7M to support the second-year expansion of the office to represent 50% of all indigent defense cases by fiscal year 2026.

There have been investigations and reports highlighting issues like excessive caseloads for court-appointed attorneys, which could compromise the quality of legal representation. In 2022, a single attorney reportedly earned $1 million while managing hundreds of cases, far beyond state-recommended limits. Efforts to reform the system include the expansion of the HCPDO, aiming to handle half of indigent cases by the end of 2025, though this goal seems challenging due to the rising demand for indigent defense

Harris County's 2018 indigent defense budget was $58M (pre-Lina Hidalgo) our post tax hike 2025 indigent defense budget is a whopping $120 million.

In the highly publicized case concerning the murder and rape of twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, it has been discovered that two alleged murderers have been granted 9 defense attorneys which will be funded by Harris County taxpayers.

Below you can see the posts from a concerned citizen pertaining to the payments made to the court appointed attorneys.

While the HCPDO aims to provide consistent and high-quality defense, a significant portion of indigent defense still relies on private, court-appointed attorneys. This has led to debates about efficiency, loyalty, and potential conflicts of interest, especially when these attorneys also contribute to judges' reelection campaigns.

Due to the influx of indigent cases Harris County created The MAC program to improve the quality of legal representation for indigent defendants by managing the assignment of private attorneys in criminal and juvenile delinquency proceedings. The initiative was part of broader criminal justice reform efforts in Harris County, aiming to address issues like high caseloads among appointed attorneys and to ensure more consistent and high-quality defense services.

The MAC site provides a data table and you can see there has been a stark increase in services for immigration advisal requests.

Below is a screenshot from the budget report outlining Harris County's over spending indigent defense budget from 2022 when the budget was $76m. Not only did Harris County not scale back, they increased the budget & services.