Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Solutions for overcrowding at the Coryell County Jail include some expensive possibilities and facilities that have been used elsewhere in America, but not in Texas.
Coryell County leaders have been grappling with chronic jail overcrowding concerns for years, and while Sheriff Scott Williams has said options such as tent cities will not work for the county, other possibilities have been considered.
The tent cities are not a workable solution because they would only be allowed to hold minimum security inmates, and that isn't what the county needs. Williams has said those inmates are often released, and only those who are considered to be more dangerous risks are kept in the jail.
One of the costly options that the county has received information about would cost millions and would only offer temporary relief.
"The only quote we got back (when soliciting bids for jail capacity solutions) was something like $16 million for temporary housing for a 60-month period," Williams told the Coryell County Commissioners Court. "That was from Eagle Detention Facilities. That email goes back to 2021 so I know (the cost) is going to be different now."
All Detainment Solutions LLC has proposed using 53-foot tractor-trailer units that would be repurposed to house inmates.
County Judge Roger Miller asked if the Texas Commission on Jail Standards had given its approval to those options. Williams said if a decision is made to consider the alternatives, the state would be involved in the approval and inspection process just as it is for the existing jail facilities.
"There's nothing out there on the market that's pre-approved and pre-stamped?" Miller asked.
"We would be the pioneer on this for the state of Texas," Williams said.
The cost would be about $17,550 for a two-month lease for 24 beds, and Coryell County would require twice that capacity — 48 beds, Williams said.
He told the commissioners court that those are the only two options he has found to increase jail space on a temporary basis.
Asked if anyone had already used the converted tractor trailers to house jail inmates, Williams said that option had been used in Missouri.
"Green County, Missouri, is the only one I know of that has actually utilized that," he said. "They put a fence around it."
The temporary facility in Greene County included six 52-foot tractor trailers located adjacent to that county's permanent jail.
An article in the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader said up to 108 men were housed in the facility and noted that they were confined in a space that "per man, is less than half the size of a ping-pong table."
The story said that the option was "heralded by county officials as the first of its kind in the country and a cost-effective temporary solution to a jail overcrowding problem that has plagued Greene County for more than a decade."
The article noted, "legal experts say the design of the trailer jail raises major red flags. One called it a 'recipe for disaster.' Others cautioned that keeping people in those crowded conditions could be considered 'inhumane' and amount to constitutional violations.
"I suggest to the sheriff (of Greene County) that they find another way before they're sued because they're going to be sued," said Sharon Dolovich, director of the University of California, Los Angeles' Prison Law & Policy Program.
Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott defended the use of the temporary facilities, however, saying while they were not ideal, they were effective in helping alleviate a chronic problem of jail overcrowding.
"Inhumane is a ridiculous word to use," he told the News-Leader. "I wouldn't put my staff in an inhumane area to work.
"This jail is very clean and well-maintained, and as far as space issues go, it is what it is," Arnott said. ".... Most sheriffs who come to tour it think it's better than their existing jail .... People come from all over and say, 'This is a fantastic idea.'"
Arnott said while he didn't see the facility as a permanent fix for jail overcrowding, it was a workable temporary option.
"Do we want to keep it forever? No," he told the Leader-News. "But it's a great solution for now," he said.
Also using the All Detainment Solutions option was Canyon County, Idaho, officials approved a $4.5 million lease agreement with All Detainment Solutions for a temporary jail, where they plan to house 122 women, the Idaho Press reported.
That option provided more space for inmates. According to Idaho Press, the female inmates will be held in 28 semi-trailers, more than four times as many trailers than those that house Greene County's 108 inmates.
Greene County, Missouri, had to use the modular option for an extended period of time. The temporary housing option began in late 2017. Inmates were finally moved to a new, larger jail earlier this month.
