{"id":33756,"date":"2025-07-02T22:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T22:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33756\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T22:54:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T22:54:12","slug":"people-are-being-held-in-dallas-county-jail-weeks-beyond-sentences-amid-systemic-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33756\/","title":{"rendered":"People are being held in Dallas County jail weeks beyond sentences amid systemic failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nearly three months in the Dallas County jail, Darius Richardson should have completed his sentence for a probation violation. That\u2019s when he began worrying he\u2019d never be let out. <\/p>\n

Despite his pleas to jailers that something was wrong and his family\u2019s daily calls to county officials, Richardson was not released until June 4 \u2014 three weeks after his time-served date.<\/p>\n

The extra 21 days behind bars cost Richardson, 28, his restaurant job and apartment. He began needing his asthma inhaler for the first time since he was a child.<\/p>\n

When Tamryn Burks saw her boyfriend again, she said he was \u201ca shell\u201d of his former self from stress and uncertainty around why he was still being detained.<\/p>\n

Crime in The News<\/p>\n

Read the crime and public safety news your neighbors are talking about.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever been through to be honest,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cAt a point in time you just lose all hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s experience \u2014 his loss of freedom, employment and housing \u2014 raises troubling questions about the competency of Dallas County\u2019s criminal justice system, especially because his case is not an anomaly. <\/p>\n

Dallas County has an ongoing pattern of detaining people for weeks<\/a> past their release dates, derailing lives and compounding the jail\u2019s overcrowding crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a disastrous transition<\/a> to new case management software in May 2023, problems persist today \u2014 most critically in the county\u2019s ability to move defendants\u2019 paperwork between the courts and sheriff\u2019s office and get it to the state so releases can be processed.<\/p>\n

\"DariusDarius Richardson poses for a photograph at his girlfriend’s mother’s home in Fort Worth, Texas, on Jun 26, 2025.(Jason Janik \/ Special Contributor)<\/p>\n

It has led Richardson and Adrian James Noriega to become the latest to sue Dallas County for illegal detention, alleging in a federal complaint filed June 18 that officials\u2019 negligence to resolve a known problem robbed them of their freedom and violated their constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

Attorney Jim Spangler, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Richardson and Noriega, said he is seeking class-action status to accommodate potentially hundreds of people who have been illegally detained in the jail over the past two years.<\/p>\n

At least three other federal lawsuits are pending against Dallas County for illegal detention that involve allegations from 2023. Last year the Commissioners Court settled two previous claims for the same issue for $100,000 and $60,000 respectively. Spangler said he is negotiating a settlement with the county for another case where a woman was detained 46 days past her release date in early 2025.<\/p>\n

\"AdrianAdrian James Noriega photographed on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Dallas. Noriega is part of a federal lawsuit against Dallas County alleging failed policies are causing people to be illegally detained past their sentences. He was kept in the Dallas County jail 30 days past his time-served date this year.(Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear this is indicative of pretty deep, systemic problems,\u201d Spangler said. \u201cThe commissioners know this is a problem, but Dallas County seems to be unable to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office is responsible for sending judgment packets to the state to process releases. In an interview, Sheriff Marian Brown said her employees cannot do so until they receive paperwork from the district clerk\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

That process is riddled with inefficiencies with no method for the public or attorneys to monitor where holdups are occurring. <\/p>\n

Although the courts transitioned to a case-management software called Odyssey in 2023, the jail still operates on a separate network, Adult Information Systems. The two systems cannot communicate, meaning the district clerk has to hand-deliver paperwork to the sheriff\u2019s office in order to process releases, Brown confirmed.<\/p>\n

When asked if the jail would begin switching over to Odyssey to be compatible with the court system, Brown responded that Odyssey was supposed to communicate with the jail\u2019s software from the beginning. <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the problem is it\u2019s not working the way it was designed to work,\u201d Brown said of Odyssey.<\/p>\n

But officials offered no immediate solutions to resolve the problem.<\/p>\n

\"DallasDallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins speaks with Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown outside the Dallas County Health and Human Services building after a reported active shooter in Dallas, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.(El\u00edas Valverde II \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n

County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins declined an interview to discuss the pattern of over-detainment but said he is aware of challenges with getting judgment packets from the courts to the sheriff\u2019s office and finally to the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery department that touches this process is reevaluating their role and working to improve them to ensure justice is done efficiently,\u201d he said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

In Richardson\u2019s case, however, his lawsuit points squarely to delays in the sheriff\u2019s office transmitting paperwork to the state to facilitate his release. <\/p>\n

Richardson was arrested in March for violating terms of probation stemming from a conviction 10 years ago for credit card abuse. <\/p>\n

In 2015, when he was 18, Richardson bought about $60 worth of food and socks with a credit card he found on the floor, according to his indictment. It was when he was \u201cyoung and dumb,\u201d Richardson said, but probation restrictions hung over his head for a decade.<\/p>\n

On April 2 he accepted a plea agreement for a year in state jail for violating the probation but was given 322 days\u2019 credit.<\/p>\n

\"DariusDarius Richardson poses for a photograph at his girlfriend’s mother’s home in Fort Worth, Texas, on Jun 26, 2025.(Jason Janik \/ Special Contributor)<\/p>\n

That meant 42 days of incarceration before his time-served date of May 14. <\/p>\n

Court records show the district clerk\u2019s office filed his judgment and jail disposition with details of his sentence on April 2, the same day as his plea. <\/p>\n

Brown, the sheriff, said although online records show the district clerk filed a judgment, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the jail received the paperwork the same day since the county\u2019s process isn\u2019t electronic. <\/p>\n

On May 27, almost two months after Richardson\u2019s plea and 13 days past his time-served date, the sheriff\u2019s office realized that the court never hand delivered Richardson\u2019s document packet to the jail, according to spokesperson Douglas Sisk. He said the district attorney\u2019s office helped gather the paperwork from the court and it was sent to the state that day. <\/p>\n

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice notified the county on June 2 that Richardson\u2019s sentence expired on May 14. The county released him on June 4 \u2014 three weeks after his time-served date.<\/p>\n

District Clerk Felicia Pitre did not respond to an email or phone call requesting comment on her office\u2019s processes. <\/p>\n

What is clear is that the systemic failure and delays cost Richardson 21 days of freedom, not only turning his life upside down but wasting taxpayer dollars and exacerbating the jail\u2019s overcrowded conditions.<\/p>\n

It costs $88 per day to house someone in the county jail, and with 6,921 inside as of Wednesday, it was at 97% capacity, according to assistant director of jail population management LaShonda Jefferson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we know someone is to be released we certainly don\u2019t want them here,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt does no good for our population to continue to increase it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noriega, Richardson\u2019s co-plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he was working his security job in April when he was arrested for a probation violation stemming from a four-year-old conviction for possessing a bulletproof vest as a felon.<\/p>\n

\"AdrianAdrian James Noriega photographed on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Dallas. Noriega is part of a federal lawsuit against Dallas County alleging failed policies are causing people to be illegally detained past their sentences. He was kept in the Dallas County jail 30 days past his time-served date this year.(Smiley N. Pool \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n

On May 14 he agreed to a plea of six months in state jail with 386 days back time, enough to cover the whole sentence. <\/p>\n

But Noriega, 41, was not released until June 13 \u2014 one month after his pleading and time-served date. <\/p>\n

While sitting in jail, Noriega considered suicide for the first time in his life, he said, as he questioned whether he\u2019d ever be let out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to know we\u2019re being held hostage,\u201d Noriega said. \u201cHow can the people you\u2019re giving tax dollars to and paying them to uphold the law be the same people keeping you in jail even when you\u2019re a free person?\u201d<\/p>\n

Court records show the district clerk\u2019s office filed Noriega\u2019s judgment and notice of disposition on May 14, the same day as his plea. <\/p>\n

When he was not released, Noriega\u2019s girlfriend, Keyasha Fisher, began calling county officials to raise the alarm. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was calling every day and not getting answers,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cI was losing hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

When that went nowhere, she contacted The Dallas Morning News. <\/p>\n

On June 10, while Noriega was still in jail, The News asked the sheriff\u2019s office why he had not been released. <\/p>\n

Sisk, the sheriff\u2019s spokesperson, said the judgment provided by the court was sent to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice but the degree of the offense on the paperwork was incorrect and returned by the state. Sisk said it was corrected by the court and resubmitted to the state on June 10, which is the day The News started asking questions. Noriega was released three days later.<\/p>\n

Court records do not show when the sheriff\u2019s office originally submitted Noriega\u2019s paperwork to the state. Spangler, Noriega\u2019s attorney, said he did not see any errors on the judgment filed in the online system on the day of his plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cDallas County has a duty to put systems in place that don\u2019t let people sit for weeks past their release date \u2014 and that\u2019s true for both the sheriff\u2019s office and the district clerk,\u201d Spangler said.<\/p>\n

\"AttorneyAttorney Jim Spangler, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Richardson and Noriega, said he is seeking class-action status to accommodate potentially hundreds of people who have been illegally detained in the jail over the past two years.(Shafkat Anowar \/ Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n

Criminal defense attorney Alison Grinter said Dallas County is the only county where she encounters her clients being routinely held past their release dates. <\/p>\n

On June 3, one of her clients was sentenced to two years incarceration with more than 800 days of back time, meaning his release should have begun to be processed immediately. But when he was still behind bars on the afternoon of June 17, Grinter called the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to inquire if the state received his paperwork. <\/p>\n

The state representative confirmed the sheriff\u2019s office had not yet submitted the packet. <\/p>\n

She emailed the county the next day, and a sheriff\u2019s office process support supervisor provided an email showing they submitted the man\u2019s paperwork to the state on the morning of June 17 \u2014 two weeks after his pleading and time-served date. <\/p>\n

Grinter said until the jail transitions to Odyssey software so it can be compatible with the courts, the inefficiencies could continue to cause people to get lost in the system. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like looking at a hole in the boat and saying that bailing water with buckets is our working solution,\u201d Grinter said. \u201cThat\u2019s not problem-solving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly three months in the Dallas County jail, Darius Richardson should have completed his sentence for a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,356,4219,1596,7290,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-33756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-county","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114786105019686181","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}