New jail plan costs $30 million

POSTED: Thursday, March 4, 2010 - 7:44pm

UPDATED: Thursday, April 22, 2010 - 10:45am

TYLER — Year after year, you hear the reports from us, overcrowding at the Smith County Jail costing millions. But every proposal smith county leaders have come up with doesn't cut it for voters.

This year's attempt at getting more jail space starts with one of the newest commissioners in the county. It's precinct one's Jeff Warr that's putting together the lowest cost plan taxpayers in smith county have seen in years. But as some see the effects of a recession, his plan's already getting a lot of scrutiny.

With a $30 million price tag, Warr says he's got the most basic plan in mind; about $90 million less than other plans voters have rejected. Warr says he knows, for voters, it's the price that has been the sticking point.

The plan he presented Thursday doesn't have a lot of the add-ons some of the other plans did. It buys some extra property, a new laundry and jail space that would prevent the county from busing inmates to other counties. A practice that's now costing the county millions.

"We know there's some areas that some people are not going to like. It's not everything that I would like or probation might like. But I think it's what we can afford and it's something that takes the taxpayers works around what their willing to give us," Warr said.

County Judge Joel Baker said he supports the plan but thinks putting it on the May ballot is too soon.

Comments News Comments

whatever happened to making jail a place that you DIDN'T want to go to.why not put some plain bunkbeds,a pot and a sink and call it good? why make verything so comfortable...this is supposed to be "punishment' right? to some criminals,they might say, hey let me go commit more crimes because that cell is nicer than what i would be living in if i was out of jail,and i get 3 square meals a day to boot!!!quit qorrying about making things so nice for prisoners...this is not vacation or a resort,it is jail.....it is supposed to be uncomfortable....that makes people think about their screw ups,and hopefully not do them again!!!!!!!

It is illegal in Texas to use tents as a means of permanent housing of inmates. This is something that the Commissioners Court has no control over. See http://www.tcjs.state.tx.us/ for the rules and regulations. I sat on the Citizen's Jail Committee and we said over and over and over that tents were not an option due to the rules that we have to comply with. I wish we could make everyone understand this so we can move on with productive discussions about dealing with our jail situation.

I am 38 and back in school after 17 years due to the economy. My group in speech class last semester did a proposal about a tent city style jail. We were allowing for differences in climate and certain other factors for East Texas, and we roughly guesstimated the cost to be around 4-6 million dollars for a new facility based on the tent city jail. I believe it would go over alot better with the public done that way instead of 30 million don't you agree.

Post new Comment