AUSTIN — Texas should end the practice of keeping suspects locked up until they are tried in court just because they cannot afford to put up the cash for bail or post a bond to secure their release, the state's top-ranking judge told a legislative panel on Wednesday.

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, appearing before a joint meeting of the House Criminal Jurisprudence and County Affairs committees, said the current practice of setting bail for suspects effectively puts in place one rule of law for people of means and another, more hostile rule for those of limited means.

'It's a burden to defendants, and also to society,' Hecht said, point out that families are separated, jobs are lost and bills go unpaid.

Hecht and Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, this year instructed the Texas Judicial Council to develop recommendations to make the pretrial process apply equally to defendants regardless of their incomes.

The recommendations, though not yet formally adopted by the Judicial Council, include amending the Texas Constitution to make sure that suspects in most cases have an absolute right to pretrial release. They also call for the Legislature to enact measures to ensure that suspects are evaluated to determine whether they are flight risks before bail amounts are set.

Hecht told the lawmakers that 20 years ago, about one-third of the people in Texas county jails were unable to post bail or a bond before trial. Now, nearly three out of every four county jail inmates are there awaiting trial.

The cost to local taxpayers can be staggering.

David Slayton, executive director of the Judicial Council, said it costs an average of $60 a day to keep an inmate in county lockup. That works out to $6.2 million a day for all the inmates awaiting trial in jails across Texas. The annual figure is close to $1 billion, he said.

Slayton also cited studies showing that suspects who are unable to post bail tend to be more likely to be given longer sentence if they are convicted and more likely to offend again whenever they complete the sentence and return to society.

Lawmakers from both parties expressed concern.

'If I'm indigent, a $5,000 bond may as well be $1 million,' said State Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg. 'I'm not getting out (of jail).'

State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, a Republican who represents suburbs near Fort Worth, said he worries that some counties are too slow to return bail money to the defendants who posted it.

Also in the recommendations is a proposal to allow judges to deny bail if a defendant poses a clear societal threat. Currently, judges don't have that power. Instead, Slayton said, they simply set an exorbitant amount for bail and hope the defendant is unable to pay.

That recommendation would require lawmakers to place a constitutional amendment before Texas voters.

Stickland was among a handful of lawmakers who were skeptical of the idea.

'Doesn't that fly in the face of 'innocent until proven guilty'?' he asked.

The Judicial Council is expected to act on the recommendations in late October. Then it would be up to the Legislature to decide whether to push them forward.

Twitter: @JohnnieMo