Posted on 11/29/2006 11:46:36 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
Sheriff says he wants it up and running in three weeks
— A plan by Sheriff Omar Lucio to temporarily house non-violent prisoners in a tent work camp was approved Tuesday by Cameron County commissioners.
The 48 prisoners to be housed in a large Army tent will be volunteers with records of non-violent offenses such as non-payment of child support or writing hot checks, Lucio said.
Only participants in the Prisoners at Work program who perform community projects around the county — such as park improvements — will be housed in the tent, he said.
“We have space for 1,390 prisoners, and the state would like us to have 10 percent vacancy. But right now we only have 1 or 2 percent,” Lucio said.
Having only a 2 percent vacancy rate in the county’s four jails is not adequate, the sheriff said.
“We call it an emergency,” he said of the shortage of space. “We just want to be on the safe side.”
Because there are only a few vacancies in the four-jail system, he wants to get the tent up and in operation in three weeks, the sheriff said after the Tuesday meeting.
The county is seeking price quotes to renovate a warehouse building at the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center to house prisoners, he said. But a contractor has not yet been hired for that job.
The warehouse project has been authorized by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, he said. That agency will also have to be consulted about the tent camp, even though the Texas Local Government Code authorizes tents for housing “work camps, forestry camps or boot camps.”
The county is seeking a permit from the city of Brownsville to put up the tent, which will have hard walls and a paved floor, Lucio said. A shower and restroom building will be built by prisoners, except for plumbing and electrical work, he added.
The tent will be observed by existing video cameras and will have fans, heaters, Army cots, drainage and sidewalls, Lucio said.
The tent will be the same type used by Army troops overseas. It will be placed inside the security perimeter near the northeast wall of the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center at Olmito, he said.
The cost of the tent project will likely be somewhere between $15,000 to $20,000, the sheriff said. The funds will come from the jail commissary fund, not taxes.
A sewer line, water line, electrical connections, as well as paving, must be completed on a rush basis, he said.
TALKBACK: Do you think the county should be allowed to set up a tent for prisoners?
Give 'em hell, Sheriff Lucio!
Sheriff Lucio Ping!
It's been working for Maricopa County here in AZ. Sheriff Arpaio is consistently re-elected. Although the bleeding hearts hate him, it only makes me love him more.
WOW!! That's about what one of us would pay to build a 2 or 3 car garage. IIRC the cost of an individual cell in a maximum security prison runs about $70,000. The taxpayers ought to give the sheriff a bonus. It's also probably a lot better for the prisoners who do time there because only the nonviolent low security risk prisoners will be placed in the tent. I've always thought that the worst thing about doing any time is the horrible people I'd be locked up with.
Later that night Kemah has a christmas boat parade!
They should build camps like the prisoner of war camps you see in movies. Lots of room out in the desert.
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