Statewide, more than half of all privately operated county jail beds are empty, according to figures from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The Texas Legislature, looking for budget cuts, is contemplating shedding 2,000 contract prison beds. Among the reasons: The crime rate is falling, sentencing alternatives mean fewer felons doing hard time and states everywhere are slashing budgets. And a prison in Huerfano County, Colo., closed after Arizona pulled out its 700 inmates.Īccording to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the total correctional population in the United States is declining for the first time in three decades. Hardin, Mont., defaulted on its bond payments after trying, so far unsuccessfully, to fill its 464-bed minimum security prison. Some prisons are struggling outside Texas, too. But the 20-year private prison building boom is over. Once upon a time, it seems every small town wanted to be a prison town. The same thing has happened to communities across Texas. Holdin' the bag!" says Tommy Kelton, another Atmos retiree, completing the sentence. And the people who's got it going are all up and gone and they left us. "It was never voted on by the citizens of Littlefield is stuck in their craw," says Carl Enloe, retired from Atmos Energy. The village elders drinking coffee at the White Kitchen cafe are not happy about the way things have turned out.
Still, the city's bond rating has tanked. To avoid defaulting on the loan, Littlefield has raised property taxes, increased water and sewer fees, laid off city employees and held off buying a new police car. "Is it something we have that we'd rather not have? Well, today that would probably be the case," Davis says. Is the empty prison a big white elephant for the city of Littlefield? That's $10 per resident of this little city. pretty austere, but from what I understand from a prison standpoint, it's better than most," he says, still trying to close the sale.įor the past two years, Littlefield has had to come up with $65,000 a month to pay the note on the prison. For sale or contract: a 372-bed, medium-security prison with double security fences, state-of-the-art control room, gymnasium, law library, classrooms and five living pods.ĭavis opens the gray steel door to a barren cell with bunk beds and stainless-steel furniture.
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