SAN ANTONIO — A statutory loophole has left two parolees at the Bexar County Jail in limbo, costing local taxpayers more than $10,000 and counting. The figure continuing to climb as the Bexar County Public Defender’s Office argues the parolees do not belong at the jail in the first place.
Inmates Mark Yassen and Brian Johnson, both on parole for drug charges, have spent a combined 173 days in the Bexar County Jail, accused of violating the conditions of their parole for incidents that happened in Universal City. Johnson and Yassen were both issued tickets for the infractions.
Under normal circumstances, the pair would have a hearing to determine whether they should go back to prison. However, because of the pending citations, the parole board has declined to hear their respective cases, leaving them at the Bexar County Jail indefinitely. Bexar County Public Defender Michael Young represents Yassen and Johnson and visited them Tuesday after more than a month of trying to get their cases rectified with officials in Universal City.
“When I spoke to one of the individuals, he just kept repeating, 'I'm lost in the system, I'm just lost in the system. I can't go to the parole hearing. I can't go to Universal City to take care of this ticket. I'm stuck stuck here in limbo,’” Young said.
Young called their situations a unique circumstance.
“The fact that they're stuck in jail on the parole violation means they can't go to Universal City to take care of these tickets, they can't make a payment arrangement, they can't appear in court,” Young said. "And Universal City isn't willing to give them time served, which would be another possibility. And they're also unwilling to dismiss the tickets.”
Young said once the citations are addressed, a parole board would likely decide to send them back to prison with the state footing the bill on their incarceration in a state facility. However, because Universal City refuses to act on the citations, the pair remain at the Bexar County Jail at local taxpayers’ expense.
"It's important to remember we're not advocating that these people just be released on the street,” Young said. "What we're really advocating for is that they not be housed in the county jail at the county expense and denied a hearing, which is that's really what we want is a chance for them to defend themselves. And they're not getting it.”
Numbers provided to Young by Bexar County’s Population Impact Control Unit manager on Tuesday showed Yaseen’s 113 days behind bars have cost more than $7,000 while Johnson’s 60 days have cost $3,780. Since the onset of the pandemic Sheriff Javier Salazar has pushed to reduce the jail population by getting individuals transferred to state custody and getting non-violent offenders released.
“It’s expensive. It’s $60 per person, per day, at least and that’s for a completely healthy inmate,” Salazar said. “Part of being a good steward of taxpayer dollars is making sure that we’ve only got people here that absolutely need to be.”
Young recounted one extreme case he was told of in which an inmate nearly bankrupted the county with medical bills. E-mails provided to KENS 5 show Young on multiple occasions has tried to get a judge to dismiss the citations, as the pair have not been granted credit for time served and neither individual has the means to pay for the citations.
The Universal City judge who Young said reviewed the citations and declined to dismiss them said Tuesday afternoon he wasn’t familiar with the cases as he reviews approximately a thousand cases a month. He said the city allows $100 credit for every day served behind bars on citations out of Universal City, though the inmates typically serve time at the Guadalupe County jail. He remarked something did not add up when given a description of the circumstances, but had no official comment on the matter.
Emails to Universal City’s mayor, city manager, prosecutor on the case and city clerk requesting an interview or comment were not returned Tuesday afternoon.
In the meantime, the loophole is one Bexar County is working to address.
"One of the things Bexar County is doing is part of our legislative initiative is to introduce legislation in this next session to fix this problem of people remaining in county jails at county expense instead of going back to Texas State Prison,” Young said.
Young explained part of the legislation would require the prison system retrieve parolees within 10 days of their alleged violation, otherwise the county will release them.
"The idea being that if the state of Texas is really concerned that they're dangerous, they should come get them and take them back to the prison system,” Young said.
It’s unclear whether Universal City intends to dismiss the citations.