FORT WORTH, Texas — Tarrant County commissioners voted Wednesday to terminate a contract with a private prison that recently failed a state inspection.
Almost 500 inmates currently housed at the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Center in Garza County, south of Lubbock, will return to Fort Worth in September.
To accommodate the returning inmates, Tarrant County leaders aim to expedite renovations at the Tarrant County Corrections Center. Sheriff Bill Waybourn has previously warned the facility could easily fall out of compliance with state requirements without upgrades to the jail towers' HVAC systems.
"Facilities is predicting the bailing wire isn't going to hold," Waybourn told WFAA. "If that stuff goes down, there's nowhere to go."
One of four towers at Tarrant County Corrections Center is currently closed for such HVAC and building automation system work. Those renovations should be complete in March, but the other three towers need similar maintenance.
County leaders initially expected the entire Tarrant County Corrections Center project to be finished in December 2024. Now, they're banking on completion ahead of schedule.
If contractors do not finish early and the jail's aging HVAC systems crash, the returning inmates could be stuck in a hot facility with no state-compliant jail to transfer to.
But commissioners decided they'd rather risk that outcome than leave inmates at Dalby, which failed six aspects of a state inspection in December. Among the violations, jailers failed to regularly check on vulnerable inmates, failed to take mandated safety training sessions, and failed to transfer an inmate who required medical attention only available outside the facility.
Management & Training Corporation, a Utah company that runs the Dalby facility, did not notify Tarrant County when it flunked the inspection. Tarrant County judge Tim O'Hare called that a violation of the prison's contract with Tarrant County.
"It's simply unacceptable," O'Hare said.
Commissioners sent a letter to Management & Training Corporation, expressing their displeasure. The company has since corrected the violations noted in the state inspection, Texas Commission on Jail Standards records show.
In total, Tarrant County has spent about $40 million housing prisoners at the Garza County facility.
"I am certainly for us getting the heck out of Garza," commissioner Roy Brooks said. "The question is: how quickly can we do it and how do we mitigate the risk?"
It's not yet clear whether expediting work at the Tarrant County Corrections Center will cost taxpayers more money.
"I have every expectation and confidence in our contractors, vendors, and county facility staff to get this done," commissioner Alisa Simmons told WFAA Sunday, later acknowledging jail renovations may not be complete by the time the inmates return.
"If we don't do it now, there will always be a reason or an excuse for not bringing Tarrant County inmates back to Tarrant County," she added.
For months, Simmons has criticized the housing of Tarrant County inmates at Dalby. Tarrant County would not be in this complicated position if it did not unnecessarily arrest people dealing with housing and mental health problems, she argues.
"Is the county jail the place where those individuals should go?" she asked.