These are the reforms Texas needs to ensure tragedies like Sandra Bland's never happen again.
While there are many things we still don’t know about Trooper Brian Encinia’s dismissal and indictment for perjury in the Sandra Bland case, the move towards officer accountability is a welcome development. However, Trooper Encinia wasn’t the only one who failed Sandra Bland that fateful day. In fact, the tragedy of this young woman’s last days highlights everything that’s broken with the criminal justice system in Texas.
Here are five reforms the State of Texas needs to implement immediately to ensure that this sort of senseless tragedy never happens again:
1. Officer De-escalation Training
Sandra Bland was arrested for failing the “attitude test.” In other words, had she been sheepish and deferential towards Encinia rather than honestly expressing her frustration at being pulled over for failing to signal a lane change, she might have got off with a warning.
But there’s nothing illegal about being honest with a cop. Encinia made a catastrophic decision to escalate the encounter instead of keeping his cool, but had he been properly trained, Sandra Bland might still be alive today.
According to the Police Executive Research Forum, on average law enforcement officers receive 58 hours of firearms training, 47 hours of defensive tactics training, but only eight hours of de-escalation and conflict resolution training, respectively. Our cops need to spend at least as much time learning to talk to people as they do learning how to shoot them.
2. Bail Bond Reform
The bail bond system in Texas transparently and inexcusably discriminates against the poor. The lives and livelihoods of those who can’t afford to bail themselves out of jail are disrupted, and many accept guilty pleas simply to avoid having to sit behind bars in pretrial detention. Sandra Bland couldn’t afford her $5,000 bond, nor the non-refundable $500 she would have had to pay to the bondsman, and thus remained in a Waller County jail for three unnecessary days.
There should not be separate justice systems for those who have money and those who don’t. Detention should be restricted to those accused of serious criminal offenses who pose a flight risk. Other states have already begun reforming their bail bond system, and Texas should follow suit.
3. Cite-and-Release
“Cite-and-release” is a reform usually mentioned in the context of marijuana possession, but it could (and should) also apply to other lesser offenses.
According to the Texas Smart on Crime Coalition, the judicious use of cite-and-release for minor offenses could improve community relations with law enforcement, make patrol officers more efficient, and save the state tens of millions of dollars a year.
4. Inmate Processing
Incarceration for any period of time is a traumatic process, and anyone who enters a jail with prior mental health issues—a history of suicide attempts, for example—will see those issues worsen. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards recently updated its guidelines to reduce the potential for detainees to harm themselves, but much remains to be done to improve both mental health screening and inmate surveillance. Too many Texans die while in government custody.
5. Jail Oversight
Jails in the state of Texas are in a deplorable state, and we will continue to suffer tragedies like Sandra Bland’s unless something is done, and done soon. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards is responsible for the qualities of the state’s jail facilities, and it needs not only to review its current standards, but to increase the frequency of spot checks and inspections and enforce its standards harshly. For example, Sandra Bland’s jailers were supposed to check on her visually at least once an hour, and had they done so, she might have ended up in an emergency room instead of a morgue.
The most saddening aspect of Sandra Bland’s fate was how utterly avoidable it was. And unless we want to continue to see Texans die in Texas jails, implementing these reforms is an urgent imperative for state government.
