|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
EDINBURG — More than a year after Hidalgo County officials hired a firm to overhaul the vacant Willacy County jail in an attempt to relieve jail overcrowding here, the extensive repairs are now complete and the first group of inmates have moved in.
Hidalgo County began transferring inmates to the Willacy facility Friday morning, according to a news release.
The county expects to continue transferring inmates there in increments.
“A total of 450 inmates are scheduled to be housed at the Willacy facility once the jail has been fully populated,” the news release states.
The move comes after the Texas Commission on Jail Standards conducted an occupancy inspection on July 25 and after extensive repairs to the 21-year-old facility were completed just last month.
Noble Texas Builders, the La Feria-based construction firm tasked with bringing the abandoned jail up to par, completed the job on June 17, according to documents included as part of Tuesday’s Hidalgo County Commissioners Court agenda packet.
And though the company’s announcement of project completion came months behind schedule, it nonetheless came in tens of thousands of dollars under budget, those documents show.
On May 30, 2023, the county approved nearly $2.3 million for Noble to renovate the jail facility, which had been vacant for about seven months after President Joe Biden issued a change to federal prison policy that called for the reduction of privately-run federal prisons.
But, between the months of disuse, and the differences between federal and state jail standards, the Willacy jail — once known as the Willacy County Regional Detention Center — needed extensive renovations.
For both Hidalgo and Willacy counties, the proposal to house Hidalgo inmates at the facility seemed like a win-win.
Hidalgo County would benefit by staving off noncompliance warnings from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards regarding overcrowding concerns that had forced the county to house a percentage of its jail population in Brooks, Starr and Jim Hogg counties.
And Willacy County would benefit from having a lessee whose annual rent payments would go a long way toward repaying the debt that the rural county is still paying down for the jail’s 2003 construction.
But the proposal has hit more than a few snags along the way.
Things began in the summer of 2022, when leaders from both counties first started discussions for Hidalgo County to potentially purchase the jail. By the fall, however, those discussions had evolved toward a lease agreement.
In November 2022, Hidalgo County approved a 50-year lease at a rate of $3 million per year for the first several years.
Later that month, the county began to look into hiring a firm that would serve as third-party administrators of the facility’s day-to-day operations.
On April 4, 2023, the county hired a firm to do just that, approving Louisiana-based private prison firm, LaSalle Corrections, to run the jail and oversee any inmates housed there.
LaSalle signed on for an eight-year contract that went into effect retroactively on April 1, 2023.
According to county documents, LaSalle was to be paid $13.9 million for the first year of the contract, and another $14.5 million this April. The contract price would then continue to increase by hundreds of thousands of dollars each subsequent year.
But it wasn’t until a month after Hidalgo County hired LaSalle that they also hired Noble Texas Builders to renovate the jail.
The county approved that contract on May 30, 2023.
By the end of last year, county officials said they expected to be able to open the jail by Jan. 15, despite a payment request from Noble dated Nov. 29, 2023 showing the company was still less than 50% complete with repairs.
Jan. 15 came and went. As the months progressed, Noble continued to submit payment requests to the county that showed them inching closer to finishing.
Finally, included as part of Tuesday’s meeting agenda packet, was a final payment request from the company. Repairs were 100% done, and about $291,000 under the original project budget, the document shows.
All that remained was for Hidalgo County to approve a “final payment” of $100,409.85.
The commissioners’ court approved the payment with no fanfare and no discussion at all.
As of December 2023, Hidalgo County was housing more than 350 inmates in other counties, according to figures posted to the jail commission’s website.
However, the commission has recently removed months’ worth of more recent data, citing the state’s inability to “verify the accuracy of the data due to its technological capabilities.”
The jail commission previously posted self-reported data each month from jails around the state. Now, the most recent numbers available are from 2019.
“As the facility begins full operation, we remain committed to maintaining the highest standards of security,” the county further stated.
“The opening of the Willacy County Regional Detention Facility is a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to reduce jail overcrowding and uphold justice in our community.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated with new information from Hidalgo County.
