New Jail Eyed for Downtown Redevelopment

FORT WORTH, Texas – Tarrant County commissioners are deciding how to include plans for a new maximum-security jail in a bond package that will go to voters this fall. The jail may be built on one of two sites in downtown Fort Worth, although some business leaders have raised objections.

The new maximum-security jail could take the place of an old county jail building downtown, which was closed in 2001 because it was too expensive to operate. Or, it could be built next door to the Tarrant County Corrections Center. The corrections center was originally intended to hold maximum-security inmates in single cells, but because of overcrowding, 600 of the 1,440 cells have been converted to hold more than one inmate.

Now, that jail is considered to be medium-security, and the county does not have a maximum-security jail.

Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson believes that housing high-security prisoners in a downtown jail is the safest and most economical option. All downtown facilities and courthouses are linked by underground tunnels, so if the maximum-security facility were built downtown, it could take advantage of those tunnels and cut down on the public safety risks and costs of transporting dangerous criminals.

However, Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a non-profit group representing business interests, has asked the commissioners to explore other sites for building the jail. Commissioners may consider building a 40,000-square-foot jail outside of downtown, or they may decide to build additional jail cells at the Green Bay facility, northeast of downtown.

Some business leaders fear that building a maximum-security jail downtown will detract from the pedestrian-friendly area and will hamper downtown’s redevelopment and growth.

A vote on the bond package could be delayed until site and cost issues have been explored more deeply.