Two-minute impact
Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle presented the agreement to commissioners, which would see the Waller County Jail house up to 45 Montgomery County inmates at a rate of $75 per inmate, per day.
Doolittle said the Texas Commission on Jail Standards requires county jails to keep their capacity around 90% of the total available space within the jail. However, Doolittle said the county has been operating between 94%-116% since he took office.
“It's very concerning for us,” Doolittle said to commissioners April 8. “I think we've talked about this a little bit that our jail is almost 40 years old. We need to be planning for the future and seeing what we can do to be fiscally responsible and to properly house inmates.”
Why it matters
Doolittle said the jail could be subjected to closure or administrative fines if the state determines the county is not adequately housing inmates. Despite a 64-bed expansion using existing space authorized by TCJS in February, Doolittle said there is no space left for expansion without constructing some kind of addition to the jail.
“We don't have another contingency,” Doolittle said. “At this point, we're working to try to move people through that criminal justice process in our community and to find ways to house inmates safely. But beyond that, I think that we're going to have to have some discussions with the court, with the judge and the state to try to find other solutions.”
According to TCJS, the Montgomery County Jail has a capacity of 1,235 inmates, and as of April 8 it was housing 1,266 inmates, based on live jail data provided by the county. However, Doolittle said there are still nearly 2,700 unserved warrants from the sheriff's office which could further exacerbate the issue.
The action taken
Commissioners approved the contract, but they also agreed to work with Doolittle and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office to look at potential expansion options for the jail facility.
