RAYMONDVILLE — After months of debate, Willacy County commissioners are planning to take over operations of a county-owned federal prison that’s become an economic lifeline in this farming area.
Now, commissioners are working with federal officials to land a contract to hold U.S. Marshal’s prisoners in the 580-bed Willacy County Regional Detention Facility.
Since 2003, Management and Training Corp., a national private operator, has run the prison, pumping about $400,000 a year into county coffers.
In September, federal officials granted MTC a six-month contract extension months after President Joe Biden ordered the Justice Department phase out its contracts with private prison operators.
Facing a March deadline, commissioners are working with Belton-based consultant Bill Bryan to take over operations whose annual costs could climb to about $15 million, County Judge Aurelio Guerra said Tuesday.
“We’re going to try to come up with the best way to abide by the Biden executive order and still be able to do the least disruption possible,” he said.
Keeping the jobs
For the county struggling with one of the state’s highest jobless rates, the decision means keeping about 200 jobs paying about $20 an hour, some of the area’s best wages.
“That’s my concern — the jobs for the community,” Raymondville Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said. “For the community, it should be good. That’s a lot of jobs. It’s going to help a lot of people.”
The prison’s economic impact stretches across the county.
In Raymondville, the prison pumps about $250,000 a year in water and sewer revenue into city coffers, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said.
Planning operations
As part of the county’s plan, commissioners would tap Sheriff Joe Salazar to oversee the prison’s 200 employees, Guerra said.
“Nothing will change in terms of employees,” he said. “The people operating will be the same people.”
Commissioners are also planning to work with MTC or another company to offer food service, medical care and transportation, he said.
Meanwhile, they’re working with the Marshal’s Service to determine the amount of money it will pay the county to hold its inmates.
“That’s going to be negotiated,” Guerra said. “We need to pinpoint how much per diem we need to operate the facility. We certainly don’t want to shortchange ourselves so we’ll be struggling.”
Maintaining inmate numbers
In September, Salazar told commissioners he expected the Marshals Service could cut down on the number of inmates it transfers to the prison if operations changed hands.
Under the county’s operation, commissioners would work to maintain the number of its inmate transfers, Guerra said.
“They are willing to work with us in terms of making adjustments,” he said, referring to the Marshals Service inmate transfers.
Commissioners are also trying to determine the operation’s start-up costs, he said, adding the prison’s bond holders keep a reserve fund whose amount he declined to disclose.
“The idea is not to have money upfront that we don’t have,” he said.
Questions raised
On Tuesday, County Treasurer Ruben Cavazos said questions surround the U.S. Marshals Service’s payments.
“I’d like to see the numbers first on what the U.S. Marshals would be paying and then look at the cost of employees added to the payroll — they have to add that to the medical insurance, to worker’s comp,” he said.
Background
Six days after taking office in January, Biden signed an executive order phasing out the Department of Justice’s contracts with private prison operators, including Marshals Service’s contracts.
“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 order states.
The order directs the Attorney General’s Office to “not renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities.”
The order won’t affect MTC’s contract with ICE at the company-owned El Valle detention center, which holds undocumented immigrants.
