HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Hays County said it has been successful in bringing back inmates incarcerated in outside counties.
For the past several years, due to staffing issues and limited jail space, Hays County was sending some of its inmates to counties hundreds of miles away. In December 2022, nearly 300 inmates were being held outside of county lines. Earlier this year, other county jails were holding 200 Hays County inmates.
“For years, they had to be transported for court, transported back, and their families and attorneys struggled to visit them. It just slows down the judicial system,” Hays County Sheriff Anthony Hipolito, who campaigned on bringing inmates back, said.
“I made a priority to ensure we could bring back all 200 inmates within my first term,” he said.
Currently, outsourced inmates are being held in Haskell County, around 300 miles from San Marcos, Texas. Hippolito said holding them outside the county costs $19,000 a day.
Hipolito announced on Thursday that the county had successfully brought back 56 of those inmates. By the end of November,100 inmates will have returned, he said.
Hipolito credits jail renovations, increased staffing and successful efforts in reducing Hays County’s total inmate population.
A Texas-sized problem
While Hays County has made progress, advocates say the problem is widespread in the state.
“It has become much worse recently,” said Krish Gundu, director of the Texas Jail Project. “I think they were always able to outsource prisoners to other counties and, in fact, even other states. But that has become a much larger issue.”
Gundu said around 1,500 inmates — many awaiting trial — were being housed out of state as of Sept. 1.
“Families can’t visit them. Their defense attorneys will not visit them,” she said. “[Outsourcing] actually delays the cases, so they’re stuck longer in the system.”
She said it also becomes difficult to ensure patients receive continuity of care.
“People don’t have the continuity of care. It’s just very complicated when you ship somebody out into a different county,” Gundu said.
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