Dallas May Have To Move 900 Inmates
State regulators may force Dallas County TX to move up to 900 prisoners out of its largest and most-populated jail tower because of lingering fire-safety concerns. Report from the Dallas Morning News.
If so, the county would probably have to reopen the Decker jail that was recently depopulated so the county could centralize its jail operations on the Lew Sterrett Justice Center campus. The moving of so many prisoners would not only be costly at a time when the county is staring at a $60 million budget shortfall, it also would create logistical headaches. Because the north tower jail houses those accused of the most serious crimes, the question would be where to put them. Decker can hold up to 1,080 inmates but it is a minimum-security jail. The new $65 million south tower jail that recently opened can take another 400 inmates, officials say. But it doesn’t have high-risk inmates because its guards work inside inmate housing areas …
Faulty smoke-detection and removal systems there contributed to the county’s seventh-straight failed inspection in March. If the jail commissioners are not satisfied with the county’s progress, they might consider rescinding a 1994 exception to state rules that allowed the county to add 928 extra bunks to the north tower’s cells, some county officials say …
The county’s temporary plan is to install a portable exhaust fan system to help suck smoke out of the building, Price said. It will consist of gigantic fans with hoses that will plug into ports in the cells. The longer-term solution is to hire a firm to re-balance the north tower’s air-handling system … Ryan Brown, the county budget director, estimated that those fixes would cost a half-million dollars and take about six months to complete. Also, the county will replace about 1,600 smoke detectors at $100 each, he said. ”My hope is that they can see we’ve done enough on a temporary basis to improve safety,” Commissioner Mike Cantrell said. “We’re trying to offer a solution.”
There is a great deal more data and background in the complete article.
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The Washington Post has reported
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To steal a phrase, no jail is an island, entire unto itself. Every jurisdiction with a jail needs to operate cooperatively with other agencies, other jurisdictions at all levels of government. Jail protocols manage these transactions, more or less efficiently, and they are the glue that hold the system together. Watching them evolve over time, and figuring out the larger forces that are driving the change, is fascinating to those with an interest in the small connections. Take Clearfield County in rural Pennsylvania, and