Texas Prison Bid'ness

Jail dollarWith the goal of lowering the operating costs of the Liberty County Jail, 253rd District Court Judge Chap B. Cain initiated a plan to reduce the number of non-violent individuals housed in the jail.  This sounds like a great plan, one where the county saves millions, public safety is not harmed, and non-violent individuals are not locked up.  Everyone wins … right?  Wrong! 

As The Cleveland Advocate reported ("County’s jail inmate population down, but companies now asking for more money per inmate," 1/21/12), for-profit prison companies have reacted by telling the community that they will not let the county’s smart on crime approach undermine the profitability of the county jail.   As 75th District Court Judge Mark Morefield, who supports the inmate reduction plan, stated: “’One bid said that if the inmate population goes below 200, the cost per inmate goes from $63 to $68 per day. If we work really hard to decrease the inmate population, the cost will go up to $70 per day, … [t]hey are taking all the incentive out of it.’”  With profit as their main goal, it comes as no surprise that for-profit prison companies have actively lobbied against some criminal justice reforms and for the continuation of the failed “tough on crime” approach to criminal justice.  Liberty County is just one more casualty in the for-profit prison companies’ race to maximize their bottom line. 

But, Liberty County may not bow down to the for-profit prison industry.  According to The Cleveland Advocate, Judge Morefield believes the county can manage its jail.  For Texas Prison Bid’ness readers in Liberty County – this is your opportunity to take a stand by supporting the effort to kick the for-profit prison companies out of Liberty County!

On Friday, Community Education Centers (CEC) decided to let their contract with the Dickens County Jail expire. All the inmates from that facility were transferred to the Lubbock County Detention Center. The US Marshals will pay the city of Lubbock a $40 per diem rate, and $10 per hour for guards, but the jail's Chief Deputy said they would negotiate for a higher rate in order to recover the cost of Lubbock's sending to Dickens in the first place. Now that Lubbock has a new and larger jail, they want their inmates back:

As of Friday the Lubbock County Detention Center hold [sic] 105 inmates with more on the way. Chief Deputy Downes said all the federal inmates should be transferred by the end of next week.  "The Lubbock County taxpayers are seeing some return on what they spent on this facility," said Chief Deputy Downes.

But for Dickens County, a community of 2,700, having the federal inmates transferred has led to all 489 beds empty and more than120 jobs lost.

This comes after the privately owned company that operated the Dickens County Jail did not renew their three year contract and is in the process of transitioning the operation of the jail back to Dickens[.]

"We've been working diligently for the last 8 months to ensure this day would never come. Unfortunately it has," said Lesa Arnold, Dickens County Judge.

The Dickens County Judge said possible loss of the jail is not an effect of less inmates. It's also due to the economy and location.

"I think a lot of it had to do with geography. It was just closer for the U.S. Marshals to the court system in Lubbock," said Judge Arnold.

The Dickens County Judge will find out Monday if another private company will operate their jail. (Christie Post, "Lubbock County Detention Center offsets cost by receiving federal inmates from Dickens County," 10 December, 2010, KCBD.)

Check back here after next Monday for any news regarding if another private company will take over Dickens.

After signing a three year contract with Johnson County, CEC is using an escape clause to end their contract over the next six months because the company was losing money in its operation of the jail. The Johnson County Jail has a capacity of 776 beds with an average yearly inmate population of 450 to 500 people.  It was the empty beds that CEC expected to fill with a contract from Immigration and Customes Enforcement (Pete Kendall, "CEC bailing out," Cleburne Times-Review, 24 March 2010),

“The average population is 450 to 500,” [Warden] Duke said last year. “There are empty beds. That’s attractive to us. We take those empty beds and help the county get contracts with other entities such as Immigration Customs Enforcement. Corrections 2 [block] has 176 beds. We put ICE detainees in those beds. ICE pays Johnson County, and the county reimburses us.

“The county makes $5 off every detainee. The county makes money, and we make money.”

That wasn’t the way it worked out, [County Judge] Harmon said.

“Part of the problem came with the contract CEC had with immigration services,” Harmon said. “CEC thought it would be housing the detainees for a period of time. But [ICE] was calling on CEC to take on the expense of transporting detainees. CEC was being paid mileage to do that, but sometimes they didn’t have time to get the detainees back here and in the jail before [ICE] said, ‘Take the detainees to the border and release them.’ ”

So CEC had fewer bodies to fill the empty beds, and then the empty beds began multiplying.

“When CEC contracted with us, we were running about 600 inmates per day,” Harmon said. “Nobody knows why, but the numbers recently have been running around 400 per day. Incarceration numbers are down statewide and nationwide, from what I understand. You wouldn’t think it would be that way with high unemployment, but it is.” 

As Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast noted,

As of March 1, according to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, Johnson County had just 338 inmates in the jail, so the supposed profitmaker has now become a money suck. By contrast, Cameron County entered into a similar scheme and encountered the opposite problem: Their jail has so many federal prisoners they now must send pretrial detainees three hours away to be housed by other counties at higher costs. So Texas counties have been burned by these deals coming and going. It's never as simple or cheap as it sounds up front when it's pitched. Never.

This scenario illustrates a number of risks which Texas counties should remain aware of. The first is that prison companies are not out to help counties.  Rather, profit is their primary motivation. When their profit is gone, so are they. Secondly, the promise that money will get produced in the future through either a soon-to-be contract with a federal agency is always a risky move for the county and any promises by prison companies should be compared with their history of not living up to these promises.

We will continue to monitor the situation in Johnson County to see if they choose another private company to take over or if the county will do the job.

After the Grayson County commissioners decided earlier this month to not construct a private jail in Sherman, they are staying true to this commitment. However, in Monday's commissioner meeting it was decided that some of their inmates might be housed in a private facility after all -- just not in Grayson County. The commissioners signed a deal with their neighbor to the East, Fannin County, to house some of their overflow inmates in order to give the commissioners more time to make a decision on how best to solve their jail problems in Sherman. The inmates would be sent to CEC's 432-bed Fannin County Detention Center in Bonham, TX.  

"We have always maintained a good working relationship with Fannin county and this has been in the works for a few months" said Judge Drue Bynum.

Bynum says [Monday's] agreement allows the county to house prisoners closer to home, instead of in McClellan or Limestone county jails and that it could also save Grayson County money.

"The contract was signed for 48 dollars a day, that includes transportation so depending on who you talk to around here that is cheaper than we can do it,” said Bynum.

Fannin County Sheriff Kenneth Moore says his jail has the space, but doesn't need the extra income to operate.

"It was in the back of our minds, but we didn't build this facility to depend on another county," said Moore.

The Jail in Fannin County is operated by a private company, Community education centers, or CEC. Sheriff Moore says he is glad to offer any help he can to Grayson County.

"They have helped us on many occasions, they have never failed to offer assistance in any situation," said Sheriff Moore.

While the future of the Grayson County jail is still not set in stone, housing some prisoners in Fannin County will give Grayson County more options and that means more breathing room to make a final decision ("Grayson and Fannin Counties enter jail agreement," KXII, 29 March 2010).

While Judge Bynum says the contract is for "48 dollars a day," I am assuming he means "48 dollars per day, per inmate." Any further details of the plan have not been released, such as the duration of these inmates stay in Fannin County. Judge Bynum did mention, however, that Grayson County sends 5 to 10 inmates to other counties already. Check back here regularly as this development pans out. In the meantime, below are some links to the background of the Grayson County debate and CEC. 

• Sherman's Fight Against Proposed Private Prison
• Grayson County's Decision to Privatize Goes to Public Vote
• Grayson County Jail Bond Election Canceled; Privatization Proposal May be Dead
• Grayson County Debate Finds an Answer
• Family sues CEC over son's death in Texarkana jail
• Will McLennan County Sheriff continue to receive pass-through payments from CEC?
• Breakout at CEC's Kinney County Detention Center