As of this week, the felony backlog stands at 3,735 felony cases.
SAN ANTONIO — The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office is bringing on 23 new prosecutors as it works to shrink a backlog of felony cases that’s currently over 3,000.
The office announced the new hires, calling it a critical step toward easing a problem. Back in April, District Attorney Joe Gonzales told KENS 5 the backlog had several causes but the biggest issue was lack of staffing.
“We’re going to continue to see a backlog so long as we can’t keep these lawyers employed here because we don’t pay them enough,” Gonzales said in April.
At the time, the office was short 29 attorneys and dealing with a backlog of more than 5,200 cases.
Gonzales also pointed to other issues slowing down progress: the department’s definition of “backlog” changed, the county transitioned to a new court database called Odyssey, and the crime lab had its own backlog that delayed case movement.
As of this week, the felony backlog stands at 3,735 cases, which is still high, but significantly lower than earlier this year.