County Jail Capacity Expands in Texas

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Wed, 08/22/2007 - 1:00pm — Nicole

According to the San Antonio Express News, county jail capacity increased dramatically in recent years and continues to grow. Reportedly, 52 new jails are currently under construction or in the early planning stages.

Texas counties contain more that 84,000 county jail beds -- nearly 10,000 of those beds are private (see chart below). About 32,000 jail detainees are pretrial felons compared to 10,100 convicted felons. Remaining jail detainees include misdemeanants, parole violators, state jail felons, and those held on bench warrants.

Expanding jail capacity continues to be a failed policy option. Jail space has grown significantly in recent years, and yet cities like Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio continue to experience chronic overcrowding. We previously reported that Harris County (Houston) is dealing with overcrowding problems by sending detainees to a privately managed lockup several hundred miles away in Louisiana. Jail crowding leads to significant problems like exposure to infectious disease and high levels of violence due to inadequate staffing levels.

During the 80th Legislative Session, lawmakers implemented legislation that allows law enforcement officials to issue citations for certain Class B misdemeanors rather than lock up defendants in county jails. Other policy measures have yet to be implemented. Grits for Breakfast recently posted about the governor's veto of a significant piece of legislation that would permit parole violators to "bond out" of county jail lockups.

Yet, local officials can implement innovative solutions to improve criminal justice policy in their jurisdiction. For example, they could strengthen pre-release bond programs for low-level, nonviolent defendants. Additionally, in counties like Harris and Dallas where multiple law enforcement agencies contribute to the jail population, the sheriff must work with the judges, district attorneys and police chiefs to address law enforcement and prosecution strategies that contribute to county jail growth. Finally, local officials could leverage available resources to divert defendants arrested for minor, nonviolent offenses to secure facilities where they would receive help and alleviate crowding.

According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, 18 of the states 246 county jails are privately managed.

Private County Jail Capacity

(as of August 1, 2007)

County	Population	Capacity	% of Capacity
Angelina	108	111	97.30
Bowie	897	921	97.39
Brooks	409	544	75.18
Dickens	402	490	82.04
Falls	96	107	89.72
Frio	296	391	75.70
Haskell	524	555	94.41
Hidalgo	888	990	89.70
Hudspeth	443	518	85.52
Jefferson	453	496	91.33
La Salle	501	566	88.52
Liberty	340	372	91.40
Limestone	999	1022	97.75
McLennan	321	326	98.47
Newton	858	932	92.06
Polk	534	1054	50.66
Val Vere	187	187	100.00
Zavala	495	515	96.12
Total	8,643	9,747	88.67