Bexar County continues to ship inmates to jails in close by counties — a observe Sheriff Javier Salazar says will stay obligatory to fulfill state jail requirements. County Commissioner Grant Moody calls it “an extra value on prime of the prices of working the jail,” because it strikes greater than $4 million in taxpayer {dollars} out of the county annually.
In July 2024, Bexar County started transferring inmates to different county jails to ease strain on a facility that, the month prior, was simply 51 inmates shy of capability. On the time, Salazar stated the observe would turn out to be “the brand new regular” as his workplace and county commissioners labored to finalize contracts with Burnet and Kerr counties.
County knowledge exhibits that as of Sept. 26, 252 Bexar County inmates have been housed outdoors the jail — 182 in Burnet County and 70 in Kerr County. All have been what’s often known as “paper-ready” or inmates who’ve accomplished the courtroom course of and are awaiting decide up by the Texas Division of Felony Justice to serve out their sentences.
State legislation offers a most of a 45-day window for pickup and transport to TDCJ services from counties after an inmate turns into paper-ready. Till they’re transferred, these inmates stay the county’s monetary and logistical duty.
“They get principally 45 days of free lease from Bexar County. It’s less expensive for them to attend so long as they’ll inside that 45 days,” Salazar stated. “Understanding that we’re going to need to incur the associated fee, we do what we have now to do so far as jail requirements, and we have now to accommodate them out of county at that time.”
That pickup course of presently takes a mean of 29 days for Bexar County — simply in the future underneath the statewide common, in keeping with TDCJ knowledge.
On the county’s every day housing value of $87.17, a 29-day keep involves roughly $2,527 per inmate. Sending an inmate to Kerr or Burnet counties at charges of $65 and $80 per day, respectively, reduces that value to between $1,885 and $2,320. These day charges embrace mounted bills resembling staffing prices, facility upkeep and maintenance in addition to meals and medical take care of the inmates.
Even with decrease every day charges in different counties, the financial savings are largely offset by mounted bills Bexar County continues to pay to function its personal jail.
“I can’t communicate to all of the specifics about how that $87 was calculated, however by transport off one other 300 inmates, we’re not going to scale back our wage prices considerably on the jail or have the ability to cut back lots of these prices which might be going into that quantity. So the truth is these prices are going to be there regardless,” Moody stated. “With the jail, close to capability anyway. There’s actually no value financial savings that may include that. So it’s simply further prices on prime of our prices of working the jail.”
Salazar stated the choice to ship inmates to different counties in the end comes right down to compliance with state jail requirements — even when it means sending taxpayer {dollars} elsewhere.
“That cash going to different counties helps them pay their payments, I’d not dispute that,” Salazar stated. “However with that being stated, I can’t, only for the sake of not sending cash to a different county, say, ‘You understand what? Let’s simply proceed to accommodate after which we’ll be out of compliance with jail requirements.’ One thing’s received to provide and on this occasion, that’s the lesser of two evils.”
Sustaining compliance, he stated, means the jail should stay beneath its most capability. The Texas Fee on Jail Requirements additionally requires one jailer for every ground of the power the place 10 or extra inmates are housed, with no fewer than one jailer per 48 inmates.
The county formally constructed the observe of sending out its inmates into its annual finances final 12 months, adopting $4.2 million in funding for fiscal 12 months 2024–25 “resulting from area and staffing points.”
That determine rose to $4.5 million within the fiscal 2025–26 finances permitted earlier this 12 months to “enable the Sheriff’s Workplace to ship out inmates when the jail is at capability.”
Moody stated that quantity seemingly underestimates the associated fee.
“I disagreed with the estimate of $4.5 million, and I shared the mathematics publicly in courtroom,” he stated. “ We allotted 4.5 million, however as I stated in courtroom, you do the mathematics on our present run price, and it’s extra like $7 million per 12 months that we are going to spend.”
With that funding already constructed into the county’s finances, Salazar stated the choice to proceed housing inmates elsewhere will stay pushed by inhabitants administration and area limits on the jail.
“We don’t have the room to maintain them in home. Clearly retaining them right here is good, however we don’t have the room to do it if we wish to keep jail requirements,” he stated. “You possibly can solely have so many individuals on this facility, and once we’re already at that quantity, then clearly at that time we’ve received to accommodate folks out.”
However state knowledge present Bexar’s jail hasn’t been at capability in latest months. Based on TCJS inhabitants stories, the jail operated between 91% and 93% of capability from July by means of September, with a rated capability of 5,108 inmates.
As of the latest reporting interval, the county housed 4,673 inmates — leaving area for roughly 400 extra — whereas nonetheless paying to accommodate 266 elsewhere.
Moody stated he thinks inmates ought to stay in Bexar County if area permits however acknowledged that further operational components could typically restrict capability.
“There are loads of renovations and upkeep initiatives that go on within the jail, and typically there’s a necessity for added area to finish these repairs,” he stated. “I can’t communicate to something particularly, however that might be a driver for retaining some further capability. However from my vantage level on Commissioners Courtroom, and from a budgetary standpoint, if we have now area within the jail, let’s make the most of that area first earlier than we pay to ship inmates to surrounding counties.”
The sheriff stated inhabitants traits fluctuate all year long however added that latest declines might enable the county to deliver some inmates again.
“We’ve received to get that inhabitants down,” he stated. “Proper now, it appears prefer it’s beginning to development down a bit bit. Round this time of 12 months, it often does. If these numbers maintain, then completely, it makes extra sense to deliver a few of these folks again underneath our roof.”
Moody questioned the framing of the problem by means of the lens of state delays in inmate pickups, saying it dangers distracting from long-standing capability challenges on the jail.
“I feel that the persons are deflecting from our personal, , mismanagement on the problem and attempting to place that on the state, however the state has all the time accomplished that decide up in that 30 to 45 day window, they usually have their very own challenges,” He stated.” Finally, I feel it type of distracts from the important thing problem of us managing our jail capability, and ensuring we have now the area we’d like, and that the DA is prosecuting instances in a well timed method, so we don’t have 1,700 inmates sitting in our jail, awaiting indictment.”
Moody reiterated that the observe ought to stay a “stop-gap” short-term answer whereas Commissioners Courtroom works towards a long-term plan to handle capability.
“I’ve been answer agnostic in all of this. I’m simply saying clearly there’s an issue and there’s a difficulty right here that may be a county duty, and we ought to be stepping up and addressing it,” he stated. “I’ve been speaking about this for practically a 12 months now, and we haven’t actually put any mid- to long-term options on the desk. And in order it stands right this moment, I suppose we’re going to proceed to ship tons of of inmates to surrounding counties and spend hundreds of thousands of {dollars} doing it.”
Whereas Moody stated the county should discover a sustainable repair, Salazar stated the truth is that outsourcing could stay obligatory for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t wish to say that that is the brand new regular — I’m afraid that it might be, however I don’t need it to be,” Salazar stated.
