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Travis County commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to put a year-old plan to build a separate women’s prison on hold for at least 12 months after over a hundred people told them not to go ahead with construction.
Rather than voting on a contract with an architectural firm that was on the agenda, the commissioners followed the plan by newly elected District Judge Andy Brown to instruct staff to update the prison facilities master plan with the dates and goals of that decade.
“We have a prison with a lot more capacity than we need right now,” Brown said on Tuesday. “We have Building 12, the newest building in the prison. It’s in good condition as all the reports I’ve seen show. It has a capacity of over 1,300 people seven hundred. That would fit every single woman in prison. “
The vote on the contract for the organization of the women’s prison was postponed indefinitely.
More:Travis County’s Chief Administrative Officer calls for the abolition of the plan for a new women’s prison, which is starting over
The plan to build a separate facility for women has been drawn up and criticized in recent years. The originally proposed project is based on reports from 2015 and 2016 in which outside consultants said the majority of the Del Valle county’s prison buildings were in “fair to poor” physical condition, but the largest building – Building 12 – was in “fair” condition in good condition. ”
Broaddus Planning in 2016 recommended that the county build a new facility specifically for women with a clinic and other rooms just for them. Currently women and men are incarcerated in several different Travis County jail buildings where they are separated but ultimately together under the same roof.
Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez has said for years that the new building would be a necessary and valuable upgrade that would allow her office to better take care of the inmates. Opponents of the plan, many proponents of Austin criminal law reform, have said the new building is unnecessary and that investing in a new prison would encourage the county to repopulate it.
Opinion:County needs a trauma-informed facility for female inmates
Brown said his priority is investing in other resources that might be more likely to help women in the criminal justice system.
“We have a lot to do to invest more in the community outside of prison, to further reduce the prison population and, in particular, to continue to meet the needs of women outside of prison,” said Brown.
The number of people booked into Travis County’s prisons has steadily declined since 2015, with about 11,300 women booked in 2015 and about 8,700 in 2019.
The county issued $ 6.6 million letters of commitment in 2019 to help fund the prison’s design. Brown said the county could potentially use that money on other infrastructure construction instead.
More:Residents, Travis County leaders weigh priorities in the debate over building a women’s prison
Hernandez told the American statesman after the vote that she was dissatisfied with the decision.
“I’m clearly disappointed,” said Hernandez. “I worry about the women we have in our care, and I think we are getting it wrong by not making this a higher priority. However, we at the Travis County Sheriff’s Office will continue to do our best . ” we can do with what we have as we have for so long. ”
The resolution passed on Tuesday convenes a working group to reduce the number of women in prison. It also advises staff to recommend ways to provide better physical and mental health care to inmates.
In addition to the 100 or so people who spoke out against the plan on Tuesday, about 800 others came out against the plan, Brown said.
Jennifer Toon, who works for the Coalition of Texans With Disabilities, was one of the people speaking in Commissioners Court on Tuesday.
“I spent some time in jail and both times were the result of severe mental crises,” said Toon. “I’ll tell you I didn’t need a fancy, new, ultra-modern prison or a more comfortable cell. I needed community resources and support to get out of prison. ”
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