DALLAS — Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price this week called on Dallas to consider building its own jail and for the construction of a new courthouse.
Price told city council members Wednesday that space at the 7,100-person capacity, nearly 50-year-old Lew Sterrett Justice Center is an issue and called on the city to pay more toward it to cover its costs.
“We’re coming up on almost a 50-year jail facility. We know we’re going to have to construct a new facility, not only for custody, but also a courthouse. We cannot separate them,” Price said.
He estimated the cost of building a new facility at about $5 billion. Price also said he believes the city should build its own jail.
“I think you ought to build your own,” he said. “While the rest of Dallas, 955 square miles, 31 cities – most of them have a jail or a collaboration for jails.”
Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, though, said the city is not prepared to build a new jail.
“We have been working with the county over the last few months to negotiate the contract that is before the city council today,” Tolbert said. “This a contract that we’ve been working on and what we believe is in our best interest going forward.”
The Dallas city council approved authorizing up to nearly $7.9 million to process and hold people at the jail from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2025. The vote marked the end of a lengthy dispute between the city and the county over the price.
“You’ve got 49% of our population – 2.7 million, and you basically deposit about 40% of the individuals in that facility,” Price said. “When you look at that and you start talking about $8 million, you’re a little short.”
The nearly $7.8 million contract approved by the city council Wednesday is lower than last year because the number of inmates housed in the jail went down during that time, according to Dallas Municipal Court assistant director Osiris Marquez.
“I think that if we can get ahead of it and have a conversation about what the contribution is versus what’s received, that might point us to a direction about whether Dallas does need to invest in our own jail,” Dallas City Council member Gay Donnell Willis added.
Price said there were about 6,700 people in the jail as of Tuesday evening and that Dallas County is trying to avoid sending inmates to other facilities to prevent overcrowding, as happens in other counties, including reportedly Harris and Bexar Counties.
“Of the four largest counties in this state, Dallas County is the only county in the state that has not had to outsource its custody,” Price said.
Another option for avoiding overcrowding at the jail that was discussed was reopening the George Allen Jail, which closed in 2009. Price estimated it has 800 beds and would cost about $30 million to reopen.
Dallas has contracted with the county since 1978 to process and hold people accused of crimes.
