Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Jim Wells planning new jail

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Monday, July 26, 1999

Jim Wells planning new jail
Existing jail slated as juvenile facility
By Mary Lee Grant
Caller-Times

ALICE - Jim Wells County officials are proceeding with plans to construct a new jail and to convert the existing jail into a juvenile detention center.
   They will meet with architects this month to determine the size and other details of the proposed jail, and to decide what changes need to be made to convert the existing jail to house juveniles.
   "It is something we need desperately,'' said Jim Wells County Sheriff Oscar Lopez, who said the current jail is too small.
   Lopez said that officials have decided to build the new jail, which will hold 100 to 200 inmates, on the same block as the existing jail, which houses about 30. The county already owns most of the land on the block, which is across the street from the courthouse and the sheriff's department. The jail likely would be three stories, he said.
   Tommy Cornelius, Jim Wells County Commissioner Precinct 2, said a method of financing the new jail has yet to be decided.
   "It will most likely be a bond issue,'' he said.
   He said costs of the new jail and the juvenile detention facility haven't been determined.
   Lopez said it costs the county $42 a day to house the overflow population from the jail, which averages between 10 and 30 inmates who are usually taken to Nueces County.
   "It also costs us a lot in gas and overtime to transport the prisoners,'' Lopez said.
   He said he hasn't done a comprehensive study of the costs the overcrowding causes the county.
   Not having a juvenile detention center also costs the county, he said.
   "We have to pay to transport them, and with Nueces County usually full, that means driving as far as Kerrville or Cotulla,'' Lopez said.
   It costs the county $85 a day to house juveniles elsewhere, he said.
   Lopez said he hopes to build a 24-bed juvenile detention facility, so that when juveniles are arrested, they can be kept in Alice.
   Overcrowding at the Jim Wells County Jail has been noted by the State Jail Commission, Lopez said, but the jail hasn't been cited.
   It was remodeled and expanded in 1981, he said, from 10 to 30 beds.
   The jail is in good condition, Lopez said. "All we need is more room.''



Staff writer Mary Lee Grant can be reached at 886-3752 or by e-mail or at grantm@caller.com

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