The city of Sugar Land will build a minor league baseball stadium at the intersection of state highways 90 and 6 near the Department of Criminal Justice's Central Unit, which the city has asked the state to close. Earlier this year, the facility was in the news because trustees were leaving the facility seemingly at will to go shopping at a nearby Walmart. Maybe now some will go attend baseball games!
State Sen. John Whitmire and others (including your correspondent here on Grits) have identified the Central Unit as one of the most obvious units to target for potential closure in the face of declining inmate numbers and a massive budget shortfall, but TDCJ failed to suggest closing a single facility among its 112 units in its recent Legislative Appropriations Request. Perhaps this decision will help spur the Lege to close the facility, which was built in 1909 and has among the highest per-inmate costs in the state, letting the city put the property to higher, better uses.
IF Texas is going to close anything, this will be the unit. It's logically one of the few that shady Perry can make a buck off of.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, the Dawson State Jail in Dallas is the other one where the Chamber of Commerce types want a prison unit closed.
ReplyDeleteThey need to close Wayne Scott-- ceilings falling in, their kitchen falling apart and filthy, vermin running all over the place! They have open sewers on the cell blocks, dead animals in the ceiling... The guards are quitting right and left now... But they won't close any prison units, because they NEED that money!
ReplyDeleteWhile looking at closures 3 TYC facilities are in terrible shape due to their age. Shut them down before the TDCJ unit shutdown
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