Does Harris County Really Need A New Jail?
As he attempts to secure a new jail for Harris County TX, Sheriff Adrian Garcia has hired nearly 90 more guards but still faces skepticism from commissioners about whether a new facility is the only solution to chronic overcrowding and failed inspections. Report from the Houston Chronicle.
Garcia argued earlier this month for the construction of a new jail, after the downtown lockups failed a fourth state inspection in six years because of broken toilets and intercoms. He said a new facility would alleviate persistent problems with maintenance and overcrowding at the facilities that house more than 10,000 people.
County and state officials have watched previous plans for a new jail fizzle because of a lack of voter support or the Sheriff’s Office’s guard shortage. They repeatedly have said other methods must be used to address overcrowding, including modification of bonding and pretrial diversion policies. Recent numbers show that half of the jail’s population is made up of people awaiting trial. “A new jail would have to be a last resort,” Commissioner El Franco Lee said last week …
In 2007, voters narrowly rejected a $245 million bond referendum to build a 2,500-bed downtown jail. After that, former Sheriff Tommy Thomas considered a $35 million plan to build a 1,100-bed facility in Atascocita to supplement the existing downtown lockups. That plan was abandoned because of the county’s difficulties meeting the state’s mandatory staffing ratio of one guard for every 48 prisoners. The Sheriff’s Office spent about $30 million for overtime at the jail last year to meet that requirement.
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