On Wednesday morning, Grayson County Sheriff Tom Watt announced in a press conference that the Sheriff’s Office had been notified by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) that they are currently closed to inmate transfers from county jail facilities due to Hurricane Harvey’s impact. Weekly Grayson County sends eight to 10 inmates per week to the TDCJ facilities. This closure means that any inmates that were ordered to State Jail or TDCJ will remain that the county jail facilities until the TDCJ units reopen for transfers.
“As you can imagine here in Grayson County, if they (TDCJ) won’t accept them, we have to hold them,” said Sheriff Watt. “This morning at 6:58 am, our numbers were 410 inmates. We have a capacity of 440.”
Sheriff Watt has asked local law enforcement agencies throughout the county to try to refrain from bringing offenders to the county facility if other alternatives are available. Captain Brian Ford, the jail administrator, explained a couple of the different options that the county is currently working on to maintain or reduce the number of inmates in the downtown detention facility. Some of those plans currently include to house more inmates at the Low Risk Detention Center at the North Texas Regional Airport. Another option if this is a long-term situation is to ask judges to offer Personal Recognizance bonds to nonviolent offenders, work with probation/parole to schedule hearings in a more timely fashion or adjustments to credit for time served. A last resort was to house inmates in other facilities, which would cost the county $50 a day per inmate housed in another facility.
“We manage our population as well as it can be done,” said Sheriff Watt. “This is going to be a, I hope, a short-term impact on our county and all of our counties that are affected. I just want all of our law enforcement to understand that if you don’t have to take somebody to our jail, I would prefer that you not. ”
Captain Brian Ford said that the facility currently has 15 to 20 individuals on parole waiting for hearings. That could be expedited to try and get the individuals reinstated to the public.
“My commitment to this community is that we will not release any violent offenders. That is not going to happen,” said Watt. “What we’re looking for is someone who is not violent, but just has trouble making good decisions and someone who is less harm to our community. Those are the kind of people that would be candidates for release.”
The sheriff also stated that sending inmates to other county facilities is not a good option due to the $50 per inmate the county would have to pay to another facility. Also, the other jails in nearby counties are facing the same overcrowding situations due to the same notice from TDJC.
