HOUSTON – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo discussed top agenda items and took questions during the commissioners’ court lunch break Wednesday.
Hidalgo said commissioners have unanimously agreed to launch a strategic planning process for the county.
“This is the kind of thing that Harris County didn’t have and it has taken us these years to be able to create the will and the infrastructure to really develop so much more accountability for all of our programs up and down the bureaucracy of around 20,000 employees,” Hidalgo said. “So, this is going to be a big win for all of us in Harris County to really be able to track how the work we’re doing is impacting residents and how it’s actually meeting the goals the commissioners’ court sets.”
Hidalgo also addressed the several deaths at the Harris County Jail, including the recent death of 50-year-old Dominga Barrera Trevino. Trevino is the 16th person to die while in jail custody, the judge said.
“I don’t want this to go by as an unnoticed death, as just a set of headlines in a sense that, you know, we keep saying ‘We’re trying the best that we can,’” Hidalgo said.
According to Hidalgo, the county has invested over $120 million to implement better procedures at the facility, provide officers with more body cameras, contribute to bail reform, and pay more detention officers and judges. Still, Hidalgo said the number of deaths is “unacceptable.”
“What I’m going to propose, and I hope my colleagues join me in, is that we have a standing update at commissioner’s court every single commissioners’ court meeting,” Hidalgo said. “We haven’t had a standing update like that since the COVID-19 item and I want us to be discussing this every court because, in my mind, it is an emergency. In some sense, it’s a slow rolling one but we have tried everything to reduce the backlog of cases, to improve conditions, and yet, we are seeing these tragedies.”
In addition to commissioners’ court updates, Hidalgo commented on her improved mental health status and said she’s doing “great.”
“They told me I was good to go. Initially, I was supposed to be at the mental health facility for five weeks and then the care team extended it to seven weeks, so by the time I was ready to get discharged, the sense was, ‘I’m good now.’ I felt a lot better, but of course in the back of my head, I was a little bit worried. You know, ‘Oh, what if it comes back? How do I know I’m actually better?’ And now a month into the job, around six weeks after discharge, I really feel great,” Hidalgo said.
She continued, saying she’s enjoying the job “so much more than I ever did before” with a different perspective, new outlook, and a renewed commitment.
Hidalgo also encouraged others who may be needing psychiatric treatment to seek help.
“It really works and I do, I just feel really, I feel great,” she said with a smile.
Hidalgo said the response from the public after announcing that she would be receiving mental health treatment has been overall positive.
“I’ve heard from folks directly that said that my sharing my story encouraged them to seek help, so I appreciate that,” Hidalgo shared. “I have also heard from people who confided in me that they are facing mental health challenges but they’re not ready to seek the help, and so I know from personal experience that it takes a bit of a drumbeat from folks to number one, recognize that they have a mental illness and number two, take the step to seek the help and also, if the help they sought is not actually making a difference, find a different provider, a different kind of service, so I hope that I’m just one beat of that drum.”
Hidalgo commented on the mayoral election, saying that it’s important for Houstonians to vote, no matter whose and what political side you’re on.
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