To understand why Black individuals in Harris County, Texas, were disproportionately represented among incarcerated individuals, the authors identified the size of racial and ethnic disparities in charging, pretrial detention, and case disposition decisions. In-depth analyses examined why the disparities might be occurring, and these findings were used to make recommendations on mitigating disparities in the Harris County criminal justice system.

Charging, Pretrial Detention, and Case Disposition Decisions in the Harris County Criminal Justice System

Analyzing the Contribution of Race and Ethnicity

Shamena Anwar, John Engberg

ResearchPublished Sep 8, 2025

To understand why Black individuals in Harris County, Texas, were disproportionately represented among incarcerated individuals, the authors identified the size of racial and ethnic disparities in charging decisions, pretrial detention decisions, and case disposition decisions. For each decision point in which a disparity was observed, in-depth analyses examined why the disparity might be occurring. The authors used these findings to make recommendations on how to mitigate disparities in the Harris County criminal justice system.

The findings indicate that, at every stage of the criminal justice system, Black individuals were more likely than White individuals to move deeper into the system. The overrepresentation of Black individuals among those incarcerated was primarily driven by the difference in charging rates. However, even though disparities at the charging stage are the biggest driver of why Black individuals were more likely to be incarcerated, there are further disparities present at each of the subsequent stages. Compared with the disparities present between Black and White individuals, disparities between Hispanic and White individuals are generally smaller and occur at fewer stages of the criminal justice system.

Key Findings

  • Data limitations made it difficult to determine why racial disparities in charging decisions occur. Black individuals were more likely to be charged with low-discretion crimes (i.e., crimes that are very likely to be reported to police) than White individuals; this is suggestive that some of the charging disparity might be driven by racial differences in criminal activity, although this cannot be definitively determined. Owing to the lack of data on how incidents originated, the study could not identify whether law enforcement behavior contributed to charging disparities.
  • Disparities in pretrial detention outcomes between Black and White individuals occur because of racial differences in recorded criminal histories, severity of current charges, presence of pending charges, case disposition times, and likelihood of paying bail. Some of the disparity at this stage is unexplained.
  • Disparities in case disposition decisions between Black and White individuals occur because of racial differences in recorded criminal histories, current charges, and type of attorney.
  • Although disparities between Hispanic and White individuals are less widespread than disparities between Black and White individuals, there were two specific stages at which ethnic disparities are observed. Hispanic individuals were more likely to be charged with an offense than White individuals, and, among those charged with a felony offense and sentenced to incarceration, Hispanic individuals were assigned longer sentences than White individuals.

Recommendations

  • Law enforcement agencies within Harris County should be required to report core data on all charging incidents in a central repository.
  • Information from law enforcement agencies on the origination of each criminal charge should be used to conduct further analysis on why disparities in charging rates might occur.
  • Additional data and analysis are necessary before explicit recommendations to reduce pretrial detention disparities can be made. These analyses include understanding the role of omitted variables in pretrial detention decisions, identifying the role that criminal history and charge severity play in determining felony pretrial release decisions after Texas Senate Bill 6 went into effect, identifying why racial disparities in case disposition times occur, and examining the extent to which ability to pay affects disparities in pretrial detention lengths.
  • Racial differences in the quality of defense representation need to be mitigated. Given that Harris County recently implemented the Managed Assigned Counsel (MAC) program for misdemeanor cases, analyses should be conducted to determine whether this program has been effective at reducing disparities in representation quality. If the MAC program is proven to not be effective, then the county could explore having the Public Defender's Office serve a larger share of clients than it did at the time of the study.
  • The Harris County District Attorney's Office needs to detail the criteria it uses to determine whether an individual can be offered diversion, a deferred adjudication, or a suspended sentence. These criteria need to be examined to determine whether they accurately reflect public safety concerns.
  • For felony charges, analyses should be conducted to explicitly identify the roles that criminal history and charge severity play in determining sentence length. This sentencing structure should then be examined to determine whether the penalties for factors are proportional to public safety risk or whether modifications should be made.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: Harris County, Texas
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2025
  • Pages: 163
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA3749-1
  • Document Number: RR-A3749-1

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Anwar, Shamena and John Engberg, Charging, Pretrial Detention, and Case Disposition Decisions in the Harris County Criminal Justice System: Analyzing the Contribution of Race and Ethnicity. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3749-1.html.
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The research described in this report was sponsored by the Harris County Office of County Administration and conducted in the Justice Policy Program within RAND Social and Economic Well-Being.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

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