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EDINBURG — With the Jan. 15 target date for opening the Willacy County jail to Hidalgo County jail inmates fast approaching, renovations remain unfinished at the facility.
Meanwhile, during a recent Hidalgo County Commissioners’ Court meeting, officials revealed new details regarding the cross-county agreement meant to alleviate prisoner overcrowding.
In November, county officials told The Monitor that they intended to open the Willacy jail to Hidalgo County inmates by Jan. 15 after having devoted many months to have the facility renovated.
On May 30, 2023, the county hired La Feria-based construction firm Noble Texas Builders to carry out nearly $2.3 million in renovations there.
But according to Noble’s own payment applications, the company was only one-quarter of the way done with the exhaustive list of repairs as of Sept. 25.
Since then, the company has continued working and has submitted two more requests for payment — most recently, for work completed as of Nov. 29.
In that request, the company stated it was still less than halfway done with the work at 47.8% complete.
Since November 2022 — when it first approved of the 50-year jail lease — Hidalgo County has spent tens of millions of dollars to lease and renovate the Willacy jail.
Additionally, last spring, county leaders greenlit an eight-year deal with LaSalle Corrections, a Louisiana-based for-profit prison company, to serve as third-party administrators of the jail.
That contract, which went into effect on April 1, 2023, will cost the county a minimum of $132.2 million by the end of the eight-year period.
But county leaders say that doing all this is still cheaper than the alternative of building a new jail from the ground up.
“We had a cost to build to expand our jail of about $150 million and instead, we went and bought an existing jail for like $30 million, so there’s a huge cost savings in us working with Willacy (County),” Precinct 2 Hidalgo County Commissioner Eduardo “Eddie” Cantu said during Tuesday’s meeting.
In 2022, the county commissioned a study on what it would take to expand the Hidalgo County jail, which has consistently been at or over capacity since it first opened in 2003.
However, little is known about the results of the expansion study — including any cost projections — after the county fought a Texas Public Information Act request The Monitor filed in 2022.
At the time, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez characterized the cost of building a new jail as “astronomical.” He further said it could cost the county as much as $260 million.
Commissioner Cantu’s comments on Tuesday that building a new jail would have cost $150 million were the first time an official has provided a different number.
Cantu admitted that officials have not always been transparent with the public when it comes to the jail and the inmate overcrowding issues, which have in the past drawn stern warnings from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
“Some of that has not been provided to the public, but we have a huge savings buying the Willacy County jail,” Cantu said.
“And I would like the sheriff to come and present all the savings we have in adding all those beds that we need, ‘cause we have overcrowding at our jail,” he said.
However, the commissioner’s comments contradicted some of the information that has become public thus far — a detail caught by citizen watchdog Fern McClaugherty, who requested to speak during Tuesday’s meeting.
“Did we buy it or are we leasing it?” McClaugherty asked.
“It’s a lease to buy. It’s a lease-purchase,” Cantu said.
Cortez echoed Cantu, saying that Hidalgo County has the option to buy the jail later on.
“I think we made a really good deal in leasing it with subject to buy it. Depending on the conditions of it at the end of the term, we’ll either buy it or not,” Cortez said.
“We’re only buying the building because they (Willacy County) wouldn’t sell us the land,” he added.
However, the 19-page lease agreement between the two counties contains no language indicating that Hidalgo County may exercise a lease-to-purchase option.
Instead, the agreement outlines a 50-year lease term, with four 10-year options to extend up to a total of 90 years.
That would allow Hidalgo County to lease the jail through Nov. 1, 2071, and potentially through the year 2111.
The first 24 years of the lease — through 2046 — will cost Hidalgo County at least $57.53 million, according to a cost rubric included in the agreement.
Combined with LaSalle’s administrative costs for the first eight years of its contract, including the last year, which did not see any prisoners housed there, that’s a total of nearly $190 million.
Furthermore, while the Willacy jail remains under renovation, Hidalgo County continues to pay millions of dollars to house inmates at jails in neighboring Starr and Brooks counties.
The latest report from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards shows that Hidalgo County is housing 354 inmates elsewhere.
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Hidalgo County jail overcrowding nearly untenable after decades of inaction
