Brazos County is changing the way drug and blood tests are handled in order to expedite the process.
Jarvis Parsons, Brazos County District Attorney, said it is currently taking eight months to a year for test results to come back from the Department of Public Safety crime lab in Austin.
“Looking at cost savings, we thought it would be a good idea to essentially contract with a chemist at DPS where we pay their salary and they work on our cases first,” said Parsons.
Other counties have reduced their wait time for test results from nine months to 30 days.
Parsons said one advantage to quicker results is being able to send guilty people to prison faster.
“The second, which I think is just as important, is if people have a controlled substance or something we think is a controlled substance, and it turns out to not be a controlled substance, those people are let out of jail faster,” said Parsons.
Parsons said paying the contracted chemist’s salary will save money in the long run because less people will be in jail for less amount of time, which the residents are paying for. He added it is also cheaper than having a crime lab in Brazos County.
The contract has been approved in the commissioner’s court and is awaiting DPS’s approval, which could happen this month.
Click below to hear Jarvis Parsons visiting with WTAW’s Chelsea Reber.