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Jones County pays for empty jail as detention bubble bursts

Using bonds approved by voters in 2005 for a new jail, officials in Jones County spent $25 million to construct a 1,127 bed detention facility on spec, hoping to house inmates on contract from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Now construction is complete, but TDCJ doesn't need the extra capacity and is under pressure to reduce spending instead of enter new contracts. So the facility sits empty while local taxpayers foot the bill for twenty times more jail than they need. Another Doomsday Deal gone predictably awry.This is another instance where local officials thought they could build a jail for "free." The Abilene Reporter News said in August, "the original plan was to pay for the new county jail from revenue generated by the state facility...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 12, 2010 (boomark / email).