Body
Dear Editor, I believe the county judge wants to close the jail because of the cost. The jail currently is about four million dollars in debt due to outstanding bonds. The county spends four hundred thousand dollars a year on these bonds. The county currently has about 9.6 million in surplus funds. The county can now pay off the jail debt at any time and still have a large surplus. The judge might argue we need to keep that surplus and pay off the jail from the budget. The county collects $275,000 a year for at least the next five years from the abatement on the wind farms. The county is about to receive another abatement from an energy project but it is not clear if that is an annual abatement or a one time deal. So what is the true cost of running the jail? As per the Jail Commission requirements, it is $159 for an inmate. Most of that is pay for employees. So after the first inmate, it costs an additional $40 per day for each inmate as there is no additional employee cost. The jail can hold up to 22 inmates. The average daily number of inmates is about 7. Also, the way our county jail operates, the employee cost is on the high side because the second person at the jail is dispatch. Removing the cost of dispatch lowers the daily cost of inmates. Needless to say, taking in out-of-county inmates would help with the cost of the jail. The judge wants to save these costs. I believe the closing of the jail should be up to the citizens. I would ask the commissioners to approve the SB22 grant this year and next to allow the jail to get employees. I would then ask the commissioners court if they want to close the jail to put it to a vote. Don't close the jail by using the budget, not approving the SB22, thus having a lack of personnel. Randy Ford Rotan, TX 79546