Sheriff to talk about proposed jail expansion

The jail expansion project calls for bringing the total number of jail beds from 192 to 328, roof repairs, new lobby restrooms, a law library, new medical and exercise area and a larger dispatch center. The jail on Clearwater Paseo was built in the mid-1990s using bonds issued in 1993, and it was only supposed to handle 20 years of growth, Hierholzer has said. Many times over the years, he’s said the jail has been overcrowded, although the facility has been passing its random inspections by the state. One problem with the jail is it wasn’t designed to house very many female inmates, and there have been more and more of those as the years go by. State standards require female inmates to be out of sight of males, which makes allocating space difficult.

Additionally, if Hierholzer’s officers diligently tried to serve every outstanding arrest warrant, there wouldn’t be enough room in the facility for the additional inmates, because the agency held about 2,162 active arrest warrants as of the beginning of this year, according to his office. Of those arrest warrants, 494 were for felony offenses, 1,668 were misdemeanor offenses and 123 were for people accused of violating bail bond conditions.

Inmates in the county jail as of March 1 totaled 132, 68.75 percent of capacity. The state agency that regulates county jails considers a jail to be overcrowded if it’s 80 percent full — in Kerr’s case, this would be 153 inmates. The Kerr County jail often is close to that, Hierholzer has said. 

Hierholzer has said it’s only a matter of time until he needs to ship prisoners elsewhere to comply with state rules regarding overcrowding. Financial information he’s disseminated to the public indicates the cost of doing so would increase the tax rate by $0.039 per $100 of taxable value. Expanding the jail is expected to increase the county’s property tax rate $0.0175 per $100 of taxable value in 2016, up to $0.0467 per $100 of taxable value in 2018. Selling bonds wouldn’t raise taxes for people older than 65, as the county freezes the property taxes of seniors. 

RBC Capital Markets, hired by the county, estimated borrowing the money for the jail expansion may cost $23.6 million in principal and interest over the next 20 years.

Although it may seem on the face of it cheaper to house inmates in other counties, Hierholzer has said the risk of potential lawsuits might be greater. He can’t guarantee other jail’s are run as well as his, as the county sheriff is responsible for the welfare of his inmates, even if those prisoners are moved into other jurisdictions.

In February, Hierholzer said most of the inmates in the jail are there because they violated bond conditions, parole or probation. He said there are about 1,200 people out on bond who otherwise would be pretrial detainees, and only about a dozen people in the jail whose misdemeanor charges would allow them to be housed in cheaper, alternative facilities such as tents.

Kerr County’s incarceration rate, 2.75, is higher than the state average of 2.27. The rate is determined by dividing the county’s average daily jail population by the county’s total estimated population. Hierholzer said there are things about Kerr County that may be responsible for the higher-than-average rate, such as “effective law enforcement,” the area’s proximity to Mexico and the country’s drug cartels. Additionally, Kerr County includes 50 miles of interstate that serves as a corridor for illegal activities, it’s close to San Antonio and there are three large in-patient drug and alcohol addiction treatment centers nearby.

Although the meeting Thursday appears to be the last such event, Hierholzer has said he’s willing to set up more meetings with residents about the jail expansion project. Anyone who has questions or wants to set up a presentation may call his office at 896-1216.

Hierholzer has said he and other county officials are prohibited by law from taking a public stance on the jail bond election, and they can’t use taxpayer dollars to promote or oppose a bond proposition. County commissioners can legally issue the debt required for the jail project without voter approval, but they have indicated that’s a political impossibility. 

The funds being used by Hierholzer to send out flyers and to create informational displays on the proposed jail expansion project are being paid for with donated funds — about $8,000, mostly from the approximately $250,000 given years ago to the sheriff’s office by a man who wrote the agency into his will. There was about $38,720 left as of last month. The sheriff’s office used much of the money for new equipment, Hierholzer has said. He turned all the money over to the commissioners court last month after discovering a recent Texas Attorney General’s Office ruling prevents sheriffs from accepting donated funds into their agencies’ budgets.

Residents have until April 9 to register to vote in the May 9 election. Early voting begins April 27.