RAYMONDVILLE — Four months after shutting it down, Willacy County commissioners might be getting closer to reopening a 582-bed prison that helped drive the local economy for 20 years.
Earlier this week, commissioners held off on taking action on a proposal to enter into an agreement with Hidalgo County for the lease of the Willacy County Regional Detention Center, which was pumping $400,000 a year into county coffers.
On Friday, County Judge Aurelio Guerra said commissioners are waiting to determine whether Hidalgo County proposes leasing the prison.
On Tuesday, Hidalgo County commissioners agreed to secure documents such as appraisals, inspections and surveys as they consider leasing the prison.
The prison’s appraised value stands at about $38 million, Agustin Lopez, the Willacy County Appraisal District’s chief appraiser, said.
“We are investigating whether we can use the facility for our intended purpose and hopefully we can reach an agreement with them,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez stated.
For at least 20 years, Hidalgo County officials have struggled with their county jail’s overcrowding.
Weighing options
On March 31, Willacy County commissioners shut down the prison after Management and Training Corp., a national operator that ran the prison holding U.S. Marshals inmates since it opened in 2003, pulled out more than a year after President Joe Biden ordered the Justice Department phase out contracts with private prison operators.
Meanwhile, commissioners continue to weigh options surrounding the prison’s operation, Guerra said.
Now, lawmakers including U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez are requesting the Biden administration exempt Willacy County from the president’s executive order, he said.
“We’re also looking into other avenues,” he said, declining to disclose details.
Options include selling the prison at 1800 Industrial Drive in Raymondville, Commissioner Henry De La Paz said earlier this month.
Big operation
Since January 2021, commissioners here have been debating the operation of the prison, whose 189 workers were making about $20 a hour, some of highest wages in the area.
For months, they worked to draft a plan that included taking over operations while placing the prison’s employees on the county’s payroll, with Sheriff Joe Salazar overseeing staff while MTC offered services such as transportation, food and medical care, Guerra said.
As part of the plan, the county faced taking over a payroll and operations whose costs were projected to climb to about $15 million, he said, noting the county’s general fund budget stands at $8.3 million.
The impact of the prison’s closure is trickling down in this farming county struggling with one of the state’s highest jobless rates.
At Raymondville City Hall, the prison was pumping about $250,000 in water and sewer revenue into the city’s coffers every year, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said.
Background
In January 2021, Biden ordered the Justice Department phase out its contracts with private prison operators, giving MTC a deadline to cease operations.
“To decrease incarceration levels, we must reduce profit-based incentives to incarcerate by phasing out the federal government’s reliance on privately operated criminal detention facilities,” the executive order states.
