Posted on 05/13/2006 7:33:53 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Lucio wants facility for 96 prisoners serving time for non-violent offenses
OLMITO - Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio is asking county and state leaders for approval to build a "tent city" to temporarily house inmates and alleviate overcrowding at local jails.
Lucio said county officials recently approved converting a Sheriff's Department warehouse into a 400-bed detention facility for non-violent offenders, but added that existing facilities are strained.
If approved, it would be the only such facility for Texas prisoners.
Department figures show that the four county jails have a combined capacity to house 1,390 inmates. Lucio said the facilities are just shy of reaching capacity.
A state law requiring county jails keep 10 percent of their beds free at all times means the sheriff must maintain 139 empty beds.
To meet those requirements, Lucio said he plans to ask the Cameron County Commissioner's Court and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for permission to set up four Army tents to temporarily house 96 non-violent inmates serving their convictions locally for offenses such as DWI and failure to pay child support.
"The Texas Commission for Jail Standards may approve the use of tents for the temporary housing of inmates when a need is clearly identified by the sheriff and Commissioner's Court," Lucio said. "What we want here is 10 months to a year."
County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa could not be reached for comment, but Lucio said his department has developed a security and emergency plan. He expects county leaders to approve the proposal.
The sheriff said the structures would be placed in the rear parking lot of the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center, an area behind a series of two chain-link fences alternately topped with barbed wire and razor wire.
Miles of brush extend from one side of the detention center. Three subdivisions and a Los Fresnos elementary school stand about a mile to the west.
"We will have jail guards there plus a deputy and a K-9 dog. ... This is one way we might alleviate the problem," Lucio said of the county jail overpopulation.
TCJS Executive Director Terry Julian said state law allows for county jails to set up tents as temporary housing for inmates under a series of guidelines that regulate security as well as health, safety, weather and sanitary conditions.
If approved, Julian said Cameron County would be the only Texas county to establish a tent operation.
"The last one they had was in Jefferson County (Beaumont), and they just had it for a short period of time a few years back," Julian said. "We'll just have to talk to them (Cameron County) about it and see what their plans are."
The local setup would be similar to those being used in Maricopa County, Ariz., where Sheriff Joe Arpaio opened the nation's largest tent prison in 1993, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Web site.
Also on Friday, Lucio said his department has corrected problems identified in a Jan. 24 TCJS inspection which showed safety concerns at the Old Cameron County Jail in downtown Brownsville and the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito.
The report also said the Brownsville facility did not have a working intercom system and that the Olmito facility, the proposed site for the tent city, did not have a working fire alarm system.
Lucio said an inmate jailed in a padded cell for behavior problems tore out a fire sprinkler and knocked out the alarm system the day before the inspection.
The sheriff said his department corrected the problems at both facilities in February and is preparing a report to send to state officials.
A Brownsville Fire Marshal's inspection on Friday cleared all four county jail facilities.
If you build it for 10,000, Sheriff Omar, then the Texas state law will make you keep 1,000 beds free at all times! Idiotic!
Sheriff Omar Ping!
Huh. That's right down the street from a piece of property I'm looking at. Maybe I can get a better price:')
The temps have already been 105 degrees.
The idea of a prison island hasn't been used in a long time. There are plenty of uninhabited islands where violent criminals can be sent to "colonize" and live however they want to. No cells, no walls - except those that they build themselves. Minimal and very tasteless food, unless they grow their own for variety.
I wonder how long it will take for criminals to beg to return to their nice, cozy prison cells, three meals a day, and no possibility of parole.
If its a temporary facility the 10 % of free beds and tents would just have to be in storage not deployed. So you buy the extra and when you need to cycle out the used tents and cots for the new ones in reserve. You get a better deal by buying more to begin with and if needed you have gear to loan out during emergencies.
I say go for it.
We had 110 degrees on Wednesday!
I have a little inside info on this bust. After they were released, they found out one of them had been convicted in AZ for child rape, and another had previously deported for a gang shooting. ICE is now looking all over for these two. Greene County, where it happened, has a huge illegal population that rivals that of KC and STL. We are not a border state, but we are getting overrun, too..
I really love the hot weather but not the electric bills.
Mine were the highest last summer of all.
That's about the forecast for Southern Iraq. So, once again, if it's good enough for our soldiers it's good enough for our criminals! BTW, the prospect of spending the summer in a tent in the Texas sun may discourage illegals from going there.
I'm getting all worked up at the idea of using tent cities for the illegals. Think about it, you keep them there for the summer, or until it starts to cool off, then deport them back to Mexico. At that time, you let them know that if they return, they'll get to enjoy the tents for a whole winter. How many would take their chances to live in a tent during one of Texas northerns?
Forget the tents. Put them right on busses and ship them back to the border. Do not pass go.
You put them in buses, they are back by the end of the week. They spend the summer in a tent in Texas... well, they just may think it over. They spend a winter in a tent in (northern) Texas, they won't come back! BTW, while in the tent cities they could be made to work to pay for the "room and board" so that would not be a concern.
So set up a tent big enough to hold 1000 cots set end to end and side to side. There would be no need for linens, latrines, dining tables or even security.
Some liberal judge wouldn't like that probably but it would be 1000 "free" beds.
The temp is just as hot here in Arizona, those tent cities are great. There is less recitivism as a result of them.
Many don't use air conditioning here. I don't know how they do that but they do.
Sweat Backs!
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