RAYMONDVILLE — More than six months after laying off nearly 200 employees, Willacy County commissioners have entered into an agreement with Hidalgo County to lease a 582-bed prison to take inmates overflowing from Edinburg’s crowded jail.
After nearly a year of debate surrounding the Willacy County Regional Detention Center’s future, Willacy County commissioners approved the 50-year lease agreement Tuesday, while Hidalgo County commissioners also signed off on the deal.
“Hidalgo County has taken action to move forward with a long-term lease of jail facilities owned by the Willacy County Public Facilities Corporation,” Carlos Sanchez, Hidalgo County’s spokesman, stated.
The lease’s details were not released.
For at least 20 years, Hidalgo County officials have struggled with the county jail’s overcrowding.
In Willacy County, the deal will open up jobs in an area struggling with one of the state’s highest jobless rates.
“It’s a great feeling,” Raymondville Mayor Gilbert Gonzales said. “I think I share my feelings with a lot of people. We’re excited to get this thing going again. It’s a win-win for the county, the city and Hidalgo County. They’re not going to have to send their (inmates) all over.”
The two counties plan to sign the lease agreement on Nov. 1, Gonzales said.
By March 31, Hidalgo County is planning the prison to become fully operational, he said.
On Wednesday, Sanchez was trying to determine the number of jobs the prison will open.
Jail overcrowding costs
In Hidalgo County, most of the new budget’s $19 million shortfall stems from the jail’s overcrowding.
The jail, which can house 1,200 prisoners, has been paying outside jails to house a 600-inmate overflow.
Last year, the county paid more than $7 million to house prisoners in other jails.
During the last six months, MTC, which operates the Willacy State Jail along with the El Valle Detention Facility, has been hiring the prison’s laid-off employees, Gonzales said.
“The detention centers hired more people,” he said. “So they took care of themselves.”
Raymondville’s share
In Raymondville, the prison’s re-opening will put money back into the city’s coffers.
At City Hall, City Manager Eleazar Garcia said the prison was pumping about $250,000 in water and sewer revenue every year.
“It hurt us on the water and sewer side,” Gonzales said, referring to the prison’s closing. “We’re fixing to get it back when that thing’s going full blast.”
Background
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.
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.
As part of the plan, the county faced taking over a payroll and operations whose costs were projected to climb to about $15 million while its general fund budget stands at $8.3 million.
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.
