CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The continued issue of overcrowding has become even more apparent in the Nueces County Jail as the inmate population reached 103-percent.
While the issue of overcrowding is nothing new, 3NEWS went back into our video archive and found it's something that has plagued officials off and on for over a decade.
"Our caseloads have increased over 21 percent in the last five years," said Judge Sandra Watts, who addressed the issue of overcrowding in a 2016 emergency meeting about the Nueces County Jail.
Back then, Jim Kaelin was the county sheriff, but now that position is held by J.C. Hooper.
"The majority of our inmates are felons and they are in here on violent offenses, waiting for their day in court," Hooper said.
Sheriff Hooper adds that the inmate population has been at or over 100-percent capacity since May. Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney said that the county is doing what it can to halt the rising population.
"The sheriff has done a really good job at maintaining the jail, but as you know the judges are the ones who put those people in the jail. Those people sit a long time waiting for their trials, and can't get out on bail. It's a multitude of issues," he said.
To limit the overflow of inmates, some have been sent to other jails. Currently there are 30 being housed in Aransas County and another 17 in Victoria County.
A temporary solution that comes at a cost.
"It's thousands and thousands of dollars. We like to be the place where they bring their prisoners, we like to make money on other county prisoners, but we can't do that because we are so crowded," Chesney said.
So what about a new jail?
It's an idea that came up at a county commissioners meeting last December when commissioners entertained the idea of a feasibility study to figure out the scope of the project.
However no action was taken.
"That's hundreds of millions of dollars, that is a tough situation to be in, It's not an easy fix either. Lets say you have a bigger jail, you got to fill the slots. We are having trouble filling the slots for jailers because its a very hard job, even if we had a lot more room, could we staff it? I don't know," he said.
Connie Scott takes over as county judge in January, and wants to work with commissioners to bring solutions to the table.
"If it be federal, grants, local involvement, however you want to put it, I am going to sit down...We can't continue to pay these prices to house inmates in other counties a cost to our county," she said.
3NEWS also asked if Scott would support the construction of a new jail. She said it's costly, and would take a lot of planning, but does agree the 50 year old jail will need upgrades.
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