With a stalled court system, some Texas jails are dangerously overcrowded in the pandemic

The Harris County Sheriff's Office sounded the alarm as its jail population surpassed 9,000 people this month.Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune The pandemic has stalled much of the Texas criminal justice system. State prisons stopped accepting new inmates for several months last year, and most counties have not held a single criminal jury trial since last March. But while many defendants are stuck in a county lockup waiting for a repeatedly delayed court date, crime still occurs and