The fate of a new jail for Bosque County will be in voters’ hands Tuesday.
The bond proposition asks taxpayers to fund a new jail at a cost as high as $9.9 million in bonds for its construction.
Residents and officials seem to agree that the jail is in dire need of replacement. In addition to regularly failing inspections by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, it has frequent issues with flooding, leaking and miscellaneous safety concerns.
Sheriff’s officials also frequently pay to send inmates to neighboring facilities to avoid overcrowding.
The cost for the jail’s proposed 64-bed replacement — to be funded through a 6-cent increase on property taxes — would be paid through 20 to 25 years, county officials expect.
Current jail
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The Bosque County Jail, located off State Highway 22 in Meridian, has 35 beds for inmates.
Built in the mid-1970s, there have been virtually no renovations to the building since the 1980s, said Bob Flood, Bosque County Sheriff chief deputy.
“It was built before the standards were set by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards,” he said. “So right off the bat, we don’t meet the standards.”
Just last week, the water heater gave out, he said. And that’s just one item on a laundry list of problems.
The structure violates some federal regulations, is not ADA-compliant and has a suspect electrical system, County Judge Cole Word said.
It also leaks when it rains, Flood said, and administration has been forced to cover electrical systems with large plastic bags in an attempt to protect equipment.
“What we have to do is get a little creative,” he said.
Sitting on the edge of a flood plain, there have also been instances when inmates had to be evacuated from the jail because of rising waters, Flood said.
Meanwhile, jail officers are forced to operate in conditions in an area described as being similar to a “birdcage” that could jeopardize their own safety, Word added.
Compliance issues
The Bosque County Jail has failed its inspection at least six times since December 2007, according to Adan Munoz, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
Jail administration always corrects the deficiencies and the jail passes its reinspections, Munoz said, but problems continue to crop up.
“They do correct them eventually, yes, but it could get to the point (like) some of these jails that have been in existence for awhile and can’t find the parts for (equipment) when it breaks down,” he said.
The jail is not under the threat of being shut down by the commission, Munoz said, but the facility has struggled through the years with issues related to its fire-detection system, air conditioning and manual door locks.
Munoz acknowledged that there are advantages to constructing a new jail, but stressed that it was a “local decision.”
“I can understand their concerns, because there are some major repairs,” he said.
$800,000 spent
Word agreed, estimating that the county has spent as much as $800,000 in the past decade to correct deficiencies.
“We have fought to be in compliance and we’ve been out of compliance more than we’ve been in compliance,” Word said. “It’s a money pit.”
In addition to repair costs, about $100,000 per year is budgeted to ship inmates to other facilities for detention, Word said.
The jail is required to meet classification standards — keeping men and women sufficiently separated, as well as maintaining segregation between violent felons and misdemeanor offenders.
But the size and design of the jail makes it an “impossibility” to house women there at all, Flood said.
It also creates complications when classifying and separating inmates, sometimes requiring farming the defendants out to other counties.
The bond election arrives at a time when McLennan County has found itself hustling to house inmates from outside counties to fill the 816-bed Jack Harwell Detention Center and generate sufficient revenue.
But Word doesn’t think filling a new 64-bed jail would pose such a problem.
He said the county isn’t interested in contracting the jail to a private company or soliciting other counties for their offenders. He thinks that Lake Whitney — a tourist attraction that is essentially a “misdemeanor machine” — will keep the facility more than adequately full.
Proposed jail
Officials initially reviewed possibilities of expanding the current jail to address its shortcomings, Word said, but there were concerns that any expansion would sit directly in the adjacent flood plain.
Officials eventually concluded that it would be more cost-effective to build a new facility.
A 25-member committee of local business leaders took the helm on researching and determining the financing, site location and design for the proposed jail, Word said.
The initial recommendation was simply to take out certificates of obligation to fund the project, but the Bosque County Commissioners Court voted instead to present the issue to the voters as a bond election.
The proposed jail would boast 64 beds, which is what the Texas Commission on Jail Standards recommended, according to Word.
The facility would be designed to accommodate a 48-bed pod addition, should expansion become necessary, he added.
The committee reviewed 12 to 15 sites before finally settling on the newly created industrial park in Meridian, Word said. Infrastructure for sewage, natural gas and water is already in place at the site, he said.
Opposition
Word acknowledged that the bond proposal, appearing in an election year that has seen a turbulent economy and little voter sentiment, has its opponents.
“These are tough times right now,” he said. “We didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘Let’s go stir up the jail issue.’ We have to address this problem and what we’re going to do.
“I don’t like an increase in taxes any more than anyone else. I’m not exempt. We’ll all have to share this expense.”
But that’s exactly what John Campbell, an 81-year-old lifetime resident of Bosque County, opposes.
He represents “a group of very concerned Bosque County taxpayers,” who believe that a new jail is necessary, but that the proposed cost is exorbitant, he said.
Campbell said the jail could be constructed for less than half the cost of what he referred to as the proposed “hotel for criminals.”
He also takes issue with what he called “scare tactics” that allude to an inevitable jail closure.
“The judge and the commissioners are on the edge of being taken to the cleaners, but it’s not them, it’s the taxpayers,” Campbell said.
But Word remains optimistic because of the committee’s “due diligence.”
“I hope we have a good chance that it will get passed,” he said. “The folks I’ve talked to are aware of the need.”
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