CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Nueces County District Attorney's Office first implemented their cite and release program in April. The idea for the program is to give people accused of low-level offenses the chance to pay a fine rather than face jail time.
Assistant District Attorney Matt Manning said Nueces County is the only county in Texas that has a cite and release program of their kind.
According to Manning, Nueces County is the only that does site and releases for seven misdemeanor offenses which include theft of service, theft, criminal mischief, graffiti, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and possession of synthetic marijuana.
14 days after the citation is issued, the person must show up to the courthouse and get fingerprinted since they weren't arrested on scene. The person then must go through an arraignment process where they decide to take responsibility for the crime or have it set up in the misdemeanor court.
The District Attorney's Office is pleased with the results so far and hopes to continue to program indefinitely.
"The results showed that we save over $30,000 already and if you subtract the salary for the site and release coordinator that we have in our office it three was about $23,000 that we had saved in the first 90 days," Manning said.
According to Manning, it costs the county an average of $81 a day to put a person in jail. The first 90 days police gave out 371 citations most are driving with an invalid license and possession of marijuana.
Thee District Attorney's Office expects citations to decrease after new laws take effect Sept. 1. Rules include the texas driver responsibility program which will waive surcharges and allow people to renew suspended driver's licenses A hemp law that was passed earlier in 2019 which legalizes substances from a marijuana plant with .3 or less the content.
The cite and release is not a mandate to police, so it's the officer's discretion whether they issue you a citation or decide to make the arrest.
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