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Dallas County commissioners have taken the first step in considering renovations or new county jail construction by allocating more than half a million dollars to study their options.
The Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved an exploratory committee to review the current county jail facility on West Commerce Street in an effort to meet state standards.
Dallas County’s jail has failed inspections two years in a row. Tuesday’s reported jail population count surpassed 6,300 inmates, reaching nearly 88 percent capacity. Every month, the county spends $12 million to run and operate the jail.
Commissioner Elba Garcia said the jail is the county’s biggest expense, and it’s time to revisit whether the costs are justified.
“It’s the right time to do it if we want to look into the future,” she said in an interview. “We have a dated criminal justice system, we need to be sure that we incorporate new jail standards, and we incorporate new ways of doing things.”
Dallas County has contracted with engineering consultant firm MEPCE for $595,000 to provide a master plan study within six months. The study is expected to conduct a “thorough evaluation of current and future capacity needs for the system.”
Existing maintenance costs, policies and protocol, the needs of current and existing inmates, the meeting of state standards and facility layout will all be reviewed.
The jail is housing more inmates than normal because of a judicial case backlog and lengthy waiting times for mentally ill inmates who should be transferred to state hospitals, said Commissioner John Wiley Price, head of the Jail Population Committee.
The jail has been a sore point for Dallas County, despite more than $354 million in jail tower upkeep and costs over the last five years, according to county data.
This year’s inspection report found logging observations for suicidal inmates were out of compliance, jail doors were broken by inmates and multiple inmates complained about uncleaned laundry for those under crisis care.
The 2021 failed inspection reported that the jail had not provided inmates with paper to write letters to their lawyers, inmates had been denied exercise and showers and jailers had missed key deadlines in processing grievances.
In 2004, the county jail failed a state inspection and could not get a passing grade for seven years in a row. Dallas County poured in more than $100 million to improve sanitation and health care at the jail and to build a new tower. The county jail then passed state inspections every year until 2021.
Garcia heads the Facilities Committee, where discussions surrounding the almost 50-year-old jail and its functionality have been ongoing for almost a year.
“It is a facility that has seen wear and tear. It is a facility that outlasted what it was supposed to,” she said.
The Building Study Committee is tasked with researching space utilization in the existing facility, assessing additional construction — if any — needed to meet state standards, addressing the growing mental health needs of the jail population, safety and environmental concerns and looking at building a new facility and real estate options.
The committee is composed of five members: one appointed by the county judge and one appointed by each commissioner. It will hold public meetings. The appointees will be experts in correctional facilities, jail operations and real estate, Garcia said.
Once the committee has made a recommendation, that plan will be voted on by the Commissioners Court. The road to Dallas County’s new Records Building restoration was similar, and took seven years from the study to completion.