6 Harris County associate judges now without jobs, judge says

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — The Harris County judge confirms Friday was the last day of work for the county’s six federally funded associate judges.

These are judges who have taken on cases at the county’s busy felony criminal courts, stepping in to alleviate the system’s backlog of cases.

“We just don’t have as many district courts as you would in jurisdictions of similar sizes, like Chicago, Los Angeles,” retired District Judge Mike Schneider said.

Schneider knows firsthand what it’s like to work in an overloaded court system. He said judges’ case logs keep increasing, even with new courts recently approved by state leaders.

“In Harris County, we can’t create new district courts,’ he said. “That’s done by the state.”

For the past three years, Harris County’s felony courts have had six associate judges, hired to preside over cases when elected judges get too busy.

Their positions were paid for with federal COVID-19 relief funding, which is running out and won’t be renewed.

But the positions weren’t included in Harris County’s new budget passed this week.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo voted against this year’s budget, but commissioners who voted for it said they are funding other measures they consider more effective, like using visiting judges to take on cases.

But that is also expensive.

“You can’t do it without the funding,” Schneider said. “They’re not working for free.”

A new budget and a new strategy to deal with a problem that Harris County has been battling for years.

Records show the Harris County Jail currently houses 8,696 inmates, and more than 1,200 people are being held in other states simply because there’s no space for them.

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