Jail population and outsourcing costs increasing

Compared to two weeks prior, the estimated cost for outsourcing inmates from the Hays County Jail has increased by $5,206. T he Hays County Jail’s population daily average has increased by 15 inmates and the peak has increased by 12 inmates. Compared to one month prior, the cost for outsourcing inmates increased by $7,710. The jail’s daily average increased by 21 inmates and the peak increased by 24 inmates. During Hays County Commissioners Court, Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra updates the community on the jail population and outsourcing costs. The most recent report covered the week of June 23 to 29. “The Sheriff sends my off ice a report every time we meet in court about our jail capacity and percentages and dollars,” Becerra said. “Our current capacity is 410 inmates. Jail standards recommend holding approximately 10% of that open, which lowers our capacity to 368.” Becerra said the jail’s daily average was 559 inmates and peak was 567 on June 26. When reported two weeks prior, Becerra said the jail’s daily average was 544 inmates, and the peak was 555 inmates on June 12. “The estimated cost for outsourcing inmates [the week of June 23 to 29] was $171,297,” Becerra said. “The average number of outsourced males is 258 and females are four. T his week’s inmates were housed in the following counties: Comal, Haskell and Maverick. And we are holding 40 paper ready inmates, which are those that have had their day in court and are now state inmates, no longer county detainees.” According to the Vera Institute of Justice Hays County Dashboard, which was updated on July 6, 92.9% of the jail population are held on felonies and 7.1% are held with misdemeanors. The dashboard stated that 68.3% of inmates are held pretrial, 15.4% are sentenced, 8.7% are pretrial Immigration and Customs Enforcement cases, 7.3% are held on a parole violation, 0.2% are sentenced ICE cases and 0.2% are designated as other. For pretrial length of stay, 11% were held less than a week, 22.1% are held from one week to under a month, 44.8% are held for one month to under six months, 15.6% are held for six months to under a year, 6% for one year to under three years and 0.5% for more than three years. T he dashboard also gives biographical information. It stated that 502 men or 88.8% of the jail population were men and 63 inmates or 11.2% of the jail population were women. T he dashboard stated that among the jail population, 52.2% are Hispanic white men (18.8% of the resident population, 24.1% are Non-Hispanic white men (25.8% of the resident population), 11% are Non-Hispanic Black men (2% of the resident population), 5.7% are Hispanic white women (18.7% of the resident population,) 3.9% are Non-Hispanic white women (26.7% of the resident population), 1.2% are Non-Hispanic Black Women (1.8% of the resident population), 0.7% are Hispanic Black Men (0.4% of the resident population) and 0.5% are Hispanic men of other races (1% of the resident population). More information can be found at hayscountytx. com/ vera-institute-of-justice- dashboard.