Defeat of arena potentially freed funds for the work
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Nueces County is set to spend nearly $6 million to upgrade county jail facilities and is prepared to house federal prisoners again, after Wednesday’s votes from county commissioners to kill a planned county fairgrounds arena and reallocate the money.
After a 3-2 vote Wednesday not to build the arena at the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds, County Judge Loyd Neal voted with Commissioners Chuck Cazalas, Mike Pusley and Oscar Ortiz to reallocate an additional $2.18 million for improvements at the Nueces County Jail, McKinzie Annex and Juvenile Justice Center. Commissioner Betty Jean Longoria voted against.
“Is this to use the money up or are these items really needed?” Longoria asked Wednesday. “If this isn’t something needed, I see us spending money on other things. My heart is more in education versus spending money on the person in jail.”
Sheriff Jim Kaelin said the three jail facilities are overdue for major mechanical work and infrastructure repairs, including new roofs for the jail and annex, plumbing, cell lock replacement and floor and ceiling repairs.
“It’s always painful to sit here and spend money on jails,” Pusley said. “That’s not a fun thing for us to do. Every time you turn around, they are hiring more officers. When you add more policemen, you’re going to have more arrests. It’s a distasteful thing to do, but we have to do it.”
About $3.75 million already was set aside in county-issued certificates of obligation for renovations at the three jail facilities. The 2007 bonds also were supposed to fund the county’s controversial arena.
Had the nearly $20 million arena measure passed, it would have jeopardized funding for jail improvements, county officials said, including $500,000 for 48 new jail annex beds.
Kaelin said Thursday that the additional annex beds will give the county a place to move overflow prisoners from the county jail, which routinely hits 95 percent of its 1,020-bed capacity. The new beds also are pivotal to the return of federal prisoners, who were removed from the county jail in 2006 after U.S. Marshals and state jail inspectors found substandard conditions.
After Nueces County spent millions cleaning up the jail, the county is prepared to house federal prisoners again and negotiated a higher daily housing rate with the U.S. Marshals Service. Neal won’t detail the contract until the county signs it, which could happen by mid-March, he said. Under the prior rate of $45.15 daily rate per prisoner, the county took in $26.75 million between 1990 and June 2006 when the prisoners were moved out.
Kaelin and Neal have pushed for the annex’s renovation to give Kaelin the ability to move low-security prisoners there, making room for federal prisoners at the county jail, which passed state inspections.
“In our discussions with the (commissioners) court to get approval of the $500,000 refurbishment of the 48-person pod, we talked about the number of prisoners that are currently going through the jail and the need for us to begin to plan,” Neal said, “because it will take a year or more for that pod to be certified by the (Texas Commission on Jail Standards). My emphasis was let’s get it started because we will need it for either federal prisoners or with the jail population like it is, we will need it anyway.”
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