Resources

This resource is associated with our Pay or Stay report, found in the publications section of our website. Beginning in September 2015, Texas Appleseed sent open records requests pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act to the sheriffs' offices of the 25 most populous Texas counties. We requested complete jail booking records for all individuals booked into the county jail from January 2012 through June 2015. Of the counties that were able to produce electronic jail booking records, only 7 counties produced records from which we were able to identify which jail bookings were for fine-only offenses alone. This spreadsheet contains the data analysis of the fine-only jail bookings from those 7 counties: El Paso, Hidalgo, Jefferson, Lubbock, McLennan, Travis and Williamson counties. Highlights from this data analysis are contained in our report co-authored with the Texas Fair Defense Project, Pay or Stay: The High Cost of Jailing Texans for Fines and Fees, available at www.texasappleseed.org. Questions about the data can be directed to Mary Mergler, mmergler@texasappleseed.net or (512) 473-2800 x106.