The Dallas County Jail is very close to full. The situation has county officials lining up extra space and seeking ways to safely reduce the number of inmates.
There is finger-pointing about how it got this way and taxpayers are already paying big bucks.
“Nothing else matters if we can’t keep you safe. So, with this jail situation, we’ve got to get that under control on a short-term priority. That’s a crisis we’ve got to address,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, the county’s top elected leader.
Prisoners come and go from the jail daily, but lately they’ve been staying longer.
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Jenkins said no prisoners have just walked free because of it, yet.
“What is true is, if you get to those capacities you may have to release people or find expensive beds in surrounding areas,” Jenkins said.
So far, Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown who runs the jail said the extra expense is $16 million for housing more inmates.
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“From the food that they eat to the laundry that is done, things of that nature, it costs, so this is why the cost is increasing,” Brown said.
The sheriff said she has arranged other jail space, just in case, but declined to say where.
Transporting inmates to other locations could be even more expensive.
“Sixteen million is still less than housing those individuals elsewhere,” Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said.
As the longest-serving member of the Dallas County Commissioners Court, Price has been watching jail issues for decades.
He said the current jail capacity is just over 7,000.
Price and Brown said one reason for this situation is that hundreds of jail beds are off-limits for renovations to comply with state jail standards.
“We have air conditioning issues there and unlike state facilities, county facilities are required to have air conditioning,” Brown said.
Dallas County asked the state to allow a variance in regulations to add 144 temporary beds.
“Number one is public safety. We are concerned about sanctions. We have not been sanctioned. We are in compliance. That’s the reason we’re asking for a variance,” Price said.
Dallas County has sued the state for failing to treat mental health inmates who’ve been jailed awaiting determination of competence to stand trial.
Price said 400 inmates have mental health issues and 72 of them face misdemeanor charges that could be dropped for the time they’ve been held.
A classification system also limits capacity because maximum security inmates can not be housed with mental health prisoners. Women must be held separately.
Price said the jail is very close to capacity for women and officials are working to release more of them.
“We are looking for all the females that we can probably approach the judges and place them on electronic monitoring or some device,” Price said
A county jail dashboard Thursday showed the jail population at 6,558 but the population is much closer to the limit due to these other factors.
The county officials said the state has been moving more inmates who’ve been sentenced to state prison. Price said 156 were moved this week.
But all three county officials said the switch to new computer software has caused major problems, slowing court cases and the release of inmates, a system that normally moves more smoothly.
“It has more of an edge now because of the conversion if you will, with the computer system,” Price said. “But we need to work around. That is really still no excuse.”
Jenkins said it is a mess that needs to be fixed.
“What can we expect fairly from these vendors who promised to take our money and fix these things, and we’re in this mess that we’re in,” Jenkins said.
Brown defended the performance of her department.
“We’ve brought the department up to speed in many areas that we lagged behind,” Brown said.
Tarrant County is already housing hundreds of inmates at a jail hundreds of miles away.
