If you practice criminal defense law in the Houston area, you may not be terribly surprised at the article in Sunday's Houston Chronicle entitled,
"Discipline problems persist at Harris County Jail." The article relates stories of excessive force and humiliation at the Harris County Jail.
What you might not know is how the Sheriff's Department uses taxpayer resources to send over-wrought letters complaining about people's opinions about the jail experience.
Here's my story about our taxpayer dollars at work....
Last year, I helped revise our law firm website. Shortly after this was completed, we received the following email and hard copy letter from Alan Bernstein, the Director of Public Affairs for the Sheriff's Department and former journalist for the
Houston Chronicle (Yes, this is real and unedited with the exception of deleting email/web/phone information):
From: Bernstein, Alan (HCSO)
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 10:02 AM
To: Legal Assistant
Subject: Serious allegations
(By e-mail and U.S. mail)
Dear attorneys:
As a newspaper reporter and editor from 1976 to 2009, I learned how to identify – and to abhor -- an erroneous allegation. You know what I mean, because on your law firm web site you state that “a painstaking assessment (of a charge) involves a review of all statements . . . to determine if any errors exist that could lead to an early dismissal” of the allegation.
So I hope you will live up to your principles by deleting from said web site this inflammatory and highly dubious statement: “The jail personnel, especially in Harris County, seem to take a perverse pleasure in making the jail visit as unpleasant as possible. Their actions sometimes border on the sadistic, and the client who is finally released on bail, fatigued, dehydrated and humiliated, vows never to go back.”
I’ve got to admit, there are some crafty “weasel words” in there. It says that jail personnel in Harris County “seem to” take a perverse pleasure in making the jail visit as unpleasant as possible. But the damage of an unproven allegation has been done regardless.
Question 1: What specific evidence do you have to justify the statement that our “personnel” (meaning more than one) seem to take a perverse pleasure in anything? If you have none, please withdraw the statement. If you have some, please provide it to me and I will relay it to jail commanders for corrective action.
Question 2: What specific evidence do you have to justify the statement that “their actions” (meaning the actions of multiple people) border on the sadistic? If you have none, please withdraw the statement. If you have some, please provide it to me and I will relay it to jail commanders for corrective action.
As for the rest of your noxious phrase, I do not doubt that many clients leave the jail fatigued and humiliated. But this leads to . . .
Question 3: What specific evidence do you have to justify the statement that “the client” is “dehydrated” in situations where they have not refused sustenance? If you have none, please withdraw the statement. If you have some, please provide it to me and I will relay it to jail commanders for corrective action.
Question 4: In your visits to jail clients, what have you witnessed that supports your allegations?
Question 5: Since you describe yourselves as former prosecutors, were the conditions you now describe present when you prosecuted?
Question 6: If so, what did you do about them as officers of the court?
Sheriff Adrian Garcia and staff strive to provide the public with a safe (for inmates, staff, visitors and others) environment that complies with and often surpasses all regulations and accreditation standards. No one guarantees a fun experience there, but we do take allegations seriously, unfounded or not, as should be obvious by this letter.
In the meantime I look forward to your responses.
Alan Bernstein
Director of Public Affairs
Harris County Sheriff's Office
1200 Baker St.
Houston TX 77002
Alrighty then. My first inclination when I read that was to send a response something similar to the infamous Cleveland Browns stupid letter.
Ultimately, I am certain that running one of the busiest jails in the country isn't easy. And at least, Bernstein agrees with our law firm site that Harris County Jail is not a fun experience that leaves some people feeling fatigued and humiliated. But doesn't the Sheriff's Department have better things to spend their money on than scouring the web to find unhappy words about them and send long, whiney letters? And what's with a former journalist using his position to try to censor other people's points of view?
Or in the words, of County Judge Ed Emmott relating to the recent Sheriff Departments felony database debacle:
"This is proof that we need more budget professionalism and less focus on public relations. We need to be about the people's business rather than trying to win our arguments in the press whatever that might be."
Just inexplicable.