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Saturday, November 22, 1997

State board approves two new maximum-security prisons

By CHRISTY LEMIRE / Associated Press Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- The Texas Board of Criminal Justice on Friday approved construction of two new high-security prisons in Amarillo and the East Texas town of Woodville.

Board members also gave the go-ahead for design plans on a third high-security prison in Karnes County. The facility still requires budget approval from the Legislature.

The Amarillo and Woodville prisons are expected to cost $36 million each and should be finished in about two years. They could cost less if inmates help build them, department spokeswoman Allison Griffin said.

And they can't come soon enough.

"We're projecting we're going to probably be out of beds sometime in the next 60 days or so," board chairman Allen Polunsky said at the Arlington Hilton meeting. "There's absolutely no question we're about ready to get into a crunch once again."

In the meantime, lesser-security dormitories with about 107 beds each will be added onto 19 existing prison sites. The first of those trusty beds should be ready in 10 to 12 months, said Allen Sailer, director of the department's facilities division.

Prison board members Friday also approved bid requests for two other high-security prisons in Lamesa and Wichita Falls. The board agreed on construction of those sites at its July meeting.

All five new prisons will house 990 inmates apiece. Half the cells will contain single beds and the other half will house two prisoners each.

The money for these projects comes from $2 billion in prison construction bonds approved by voters in 1991 and 1993.

Texas has almost tripled its prison capacity since 1992, sprouting from 48,000 to 145,000 at a cost of $1.5 billion.

The bed shortage is the result of dropping parole rates during the past three years, combined with more parolees being sent back to prison for parole violations.

To alleviate crowding, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is looking to contract with counties to lease jail space.

David McNutt, director of the department's financial services division, told the board he sent letters to all 254 Texas counties, asking if they'd be willing to keep prisoners for 45 to 60 days to ease prison population growth. He also asked if county jails would house inmates from other counties.

McNutt received responses from 42 counties, 28 of which said they'd be willing to keep prisoners longer. That could open up 3,308 extra beds as early as Monday, McNutt said.

The other responding counties said they weren't interested in helping the criminal justice department or they needed more information.

Dallas County officials answered yes to both questions and offered 900 beds. Bexar County officials said they could house their own prisoners for extra time once space becomes available.

Harris County turned down the state's request and Travis County didn't respond.