Officials Begin To Hammer Out Details Of New Private Jail Contract
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Officials Begin To Hammer Out Details Of New Private Jail Contract
McLennan County officials went to work Thursday on details of a contract with a private company that will build and operate a new 871-bed jail.
Reporter: By Megan Fleetwood
Email Address: megan.fleetwood@kwtx.com
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(August 14, 2008)- McLennan County officials went to work Thursday on the details of a contract with a new company that wants to pay to build and run a $38 million dollar jail that would help ease overcrowding.

In a 3-2 vote Wednesday, commissioners decided to let the company Community Education Centers, or CEC, build a new 871 bed facility next to the county jail on Highway 6 in Waco, at no cost to taxpayers.

The county would lease space for $25 per inmate per day from CEC.

That's significantly cheaper than the $45 dollars the county spends on each person in their current jail.

Negotiations aren't final, but after about 20 years, the county would own the jail.

The contract with CEC is runs for 5 years.

After that, if the company were to default, or if the county didn't like what it was doing, commissioners could switch to another company.

Some commissioners expressed concern over possible difficulty finding another company to step up to the plate after only received one response to letters to 14 private companies asking for proposals on building the new jail.

But both the county judge and commissioners agree the need for more jail space is growing, creating an opportunity for companies looking to help alleviate that problem for Texas counties.

Commissioners say the tax increase associated with the county paying to build its own jail could have been as high as a 12 percent.

After contracts are signed, CEC says it will take about 15 months for the new jail to be operational.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Anonymous on Aug 18, 2008 at 02:00 PM

They waited until the last minute for the State to tell them what they knew what they needed to do for along time,now they are running around like the rats they are trying to make decisions and make money for themselves. These are the same people that citizens of this county voted for ,so remember when re-election is up for the masterminds
Posted by: e Location: nuff on Aug 14, 2008 at 08:58 PM

Car sales and pig farming should be "for profit", not people's liberty
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