The Dallas County Jail right now houses roughly 7,800 inmates, according to comments by the Dallas County Sheriff's Office to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards this morning, down from more than 10,000 at its height. That's more than a 22% reduction, but even that may be low-balled. According to the most recent TCJS jail population report (pdf), as of Jan. 1 the Dallas Jail had just 5,741 inmates, which would amount to more than a 40% reduction, from the 10,000+ max.
This news comes on the heels of reports that Harris County (Houston) has 31% fewer inmates than their maximum just a few years ago, while the Bexar County Jail population is down 22% from its height. In all three counties, crime has dropped significantly throughout the period that jail populations went down.
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5 comments:
can anyone explain why the jail budget actually increased while the jail population decreased?
That is some o' dat new fangled government math. Way to difficult to explain.
Crime declines? People are for sure keeping their trap shut about what they see.
Watkins is a straight shooter, not throwing marginal cases, or INNOCENT people in jail... Looks like he needs to go after some of the public bean counters in Dallas county, plenty of vacancy in the local pokey...
A couple of years ago the jail was added to in a big construction project. Maybe thats where they found the room. I doubt the jail population went down, rather it was just built to hold more people thus bringing their capacity numbers up and their population numbers down.
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