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In Houston, Texas, a criminal charge is heard in one of two very different courts depending on its severity: Harris County’s District Court for a felony, or its County Court at Law for a Class A or B misdemeanor, with Justice or Municipal Court handling a fine-only Class C. The real bail-setting factors a magistrate has to weigh, and the counsel-appointment deadline that applies in Harris County specifically, are covered further down this page. A case’s outcome often turns as much on procedural details like this as on the underlying facts, which is part of why understanding the structure early can matter.
Bail and Pretrial Release in Harris County
Bail reform in Texas didn’t eliminate bail; it changed how it’s set: a magistrate now has to weigh the Damon Allen Act’s specific factors, and Texas Constitution Article I, Section 11(a) still allows bail to be denied outright for certain repeat or violent offenders. Short of that narrow denial power, every other case still proceeds through an individualized bail-setting process rather than a flat schedule tied only to the charge. That bail decision doesn’t happen in a vacuum: Code of Criminal Procedure Article 15.17 requires every arrested person to be brought before a magistrate within 48 hours, where the specific charges are read, the right to an attorney is explained, and bail conditions are actually set. Harris County’s population puts it over the Fair Defense Act’s 250,000 threshold, which means an indigent defendant who requests appointed counsel is entitled to have an attorney appointed within 1 working day of that request. Certain repeat or violent offenders can have bail denied outright under Article I, Section 11(a) of the Texas Constitution, a narrower exception than the general bail-setting process most cases go through.
Sentencing Ranges in Houston, Texas Criminal Cases
The classification a charge receives under Penal Code Chapter 12, spanning a fine-only Class C misdemeanor up through a first-degree felony’s 5-to-99-year range, determines both which court hears it and what a conviction can actually carry. A state jail felony, the lowest felony tier at 180 days to 2 years, is still served in a state jail facility rather than county jail or prison, and still carries a felony record even at that lower end of the range. DWI has its own escalation path under Penal Code Chapter 49, separate from the general classification ladder above: a first offense is a Class B misdemeanor (3 to 180 days, up to $2,000) unless the BAC is 0.15 or higher, which bumps it to a Class A; a second offense is a Class A misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum 30 days; a third is a third-degree felony. A DWI with a passenger under 15 in the vehicle is charged as a state jail felony under §49.045 regardless of whether it’s a first offense.
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Assault, Theft, and Drug Charges Under Texas Law
Assault under Penal Code §22.01 covers a wide range of conduct: a threat or offensive contact alone can be a Class C misdemeanor, while causing actual bodily injury is typically a Class A misdemeanor, but the charge escalates to a felony when the alleged victim is a public servant, a family member, or someone in another protected category. Texas doesn’t charge every theft the same way: §31.03 scales the classification directly to the value taken, from a Class C misdemeanor under $100 through a state jail felony at $2,500, and on up to a first-degree felony once the value reaches $300,000. A drug possession charge’s severity turns on the specific substance’s penalty group and the weight alleged: Penalty Group 1 substances under §481.115 start at a state jail felony below 1 gram and climb from there, while marijuana, classified separately under §481.121 and not folded into the Penalty Group ladder, starts as a Class B misdemeanor under 2 ounces and doesn’t reach felony territory until 4 ounces.
Can a Criminal Record in Houston, Texas Be Cleared?
Texas offers two genuinely different record-clearing paths, and which one applies depends entirely on how the case ended: expunction under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A destroys the record but only when there was no conviction, meaning an acquittal, a dismissal, or a case where the statute of limitations ran without an indictment, after a waiting period of 180 days (Class C), 1 year (Class A/B), or 3 years (felony). A successfully completed deferred adjudication doesn’t qualify for expunction at all; that’s what a Government Code Chapter 411 nondisclosure order is for instead, and the two statutes aren’t interchangeable. A nondisclosure order doesn’t erase the underlying event the way expunction does; it restricts who can see it, while law enforcement and certain licensing agencies can still access it.
Harris County's Courts and Jail
Harris County’s Criminal Justice Center at 1201 Franklin Street in downtown Houston houses both tiers of criminal court: 16 numbered County Criminal Courts at Law hearing Class A and B misdemeanors, and a felony District Court system that has grown to roughly 27 numbered courts as of late 2024. The county added 3 new felony courts in 2023 and 3 more in October 2024 specifically to work down a felony case backlog that had climbed past 53,000 pending cases in the years after Hurricane Harvey flooded the criminal courthouse and the pandemic backed up the docket further, a real, county-specific reason the court count keeps changing rather than a fixed historical number.
Booking itself changed in a real way in recent years: Harris County and the City of Houston now run a single Joint Processing Center at 700 North San Jacinto Street, replacing the older practice of a separate city booking stop before the county jail. It’s a 246,000-square-foot facility with its own medical clinic, mental health screening, and a 24/7 diversion desk for a behavioral-health crisis instead of straight incarceration. The county’s caseload also supports specialty dockets a smaller county’s court system typically can’t sustain, including felony and misdemeanor Veterans Courts, a Felony Mental Health Court, the STAR and SOAR drug courts, and a SOBER Court for high-risk DWI offenders, and its District Attorney’s Office is one of the largest prosecutors’ offices in the country, taking in cases from 86 separate law enforcement agencies across the county rather than a single police department.
Nearby cities we also cover: our Sugar Land page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a personal bond, and is it available?
A personal bond releases a defendant without posting money, subject to conditions, and it’s evaluated under the same Damon Allen Act factors as any other bail decision.
How fast does an appointed attorney have to be assigned?
Because Harris County’s population is over 250,000, the Fair Defense Act requires appointed counsel within 1 working day, not the 3-day window smaller counties get.
What’s the practical difference between probation and deferred adjudication in Texas?
Regular probation still results in a final conviction on the record even if completed successfully; deferred adjudication avoids a final conviction altogether if probation is completed, which is why it’s often eligible for a nondisclosure order later and regular probation generally isn’t.
Is marijuana possession charged the same as other drug possession?
No, marijuana is classified separately under Health & Safety Code §481.121, not under the Penalty Group ladder other drugs fall under: under 2 ounces is a Class B misdemeanor, while a Penalty Group 1 substance like cocaine can already be a state jail felony at under 1 gram.
Does a DWI arrest affect a driver’s license before the criminal case is decided?
Yes, under Transportation Code §724.041, a driver has only 15 days from notice to request an Administrative License Revocation hearing, a civil process that runs independently of the criminal case.
What’s the difference between expunction and a nondisclosure order?
Expunction (CCP Ch. 55A) destroys a record but only when there was no conviction; a nondisclosure order (Gov’t Code Ch. 411) seals a record from public view after successfully completed deferred adjudication, without destroying it.
Don't Face This Alone
From the moment of arrest, a Houston criminal case starts moving immediately, and decisions made in the first few days can shape everything that follows.
