CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Several changes within Nueces County's Auxiliary Court is helping the county in more ways than one.
On Wednesday, KRIS 6 News reporter Alexis Scott discuss those changes with District Attorney James "Jimmy" Granberry.
For the past six months, he said he's been trying to make significant adjustments within his office. Auxiliary Court was one of those areas and was birthed from the backlog of cases caused during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was a post-COVID way for us to try and bring the jail populations down and get the case loads under control," Granberry said.
Auxiliary Court is known to handle felony cases, which were assigned from either of the seven other district courts. However, at times, the docket would be blocked by a larger case, which then halted progress on other cases and utilized the already short staffing of trial lawyers.
“It was getting blocked by a big trial which meant the office had to pull one of the more experienced prosecutors out of their normal court to go handle that case," Granberry said. "We’re 10 lawyers short.”
Granberry suggested to the Board of Judges that the county put a preference on which cases were presented in Auxiliary Court. The hope was to speed up the process. Those cases varied between Theft, DWI or Drug possession. Granberry also said that instead of moving five cases within a day, Auxiliary Court would work on 10-15 cases.
As a result of getting the cases out of the way, it cut down the number of inmates in the county jail. The population now sits at 77% capacity, according to the Nueces County Sheriff Hooper. However, he explained that just two years ago, that number was 107%.
Every inmate inside a cell costs the county more than $70 per day, but now the county has been able to save over $60,000 per day. To add perspective, the less money being spent on resources to house more inmates, the less taxpayers have to pay to the county.
“You have to understand that it’s not just what we’re doing in Auxiliary Court," Granberry said. "It’s also what the Sheriff is doing over there with his jail. It’s what the otherd District Courts are doing. It’s been a group effort and this just one little way that we found to help bring those numbers down.”
District Attorney Granberry said there’s more to come and he’s hoping to continue making changes within his office.
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