County Judge: Eliminating County’s inmate contract with Feds would be immoral

El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar reintroduced the debate over the county’s federal jail contract during Monday’s commissioner’s court meeting.

El Paso County receives $80 a day from the federal government for each federal inmate housed. County commissioner Vince Perez said it costs $89 a day per inmate. The difference, picked up by taxpayers, amounts to about $5 million a year, Perez said.

Escobar said she met with several stakeholders, including U.S. Border Patrol, the Federal Public Defender’s Office, and the Mexican Consulate, and has come to the conclusion that removing the county’s jail contract with the federal government would be immoral.

She cited that without the contract, many of the undocumented federal inmates would be forced to go to private prisons, the closest one being about 30 minutes away from El Paso, in Otero County.

Officials with the Federal Public Defender’s office said the conditions at many of these prisons are poor. They also said removing the contract would “catastrophic” to the office’s budget because they would have to travel much further to speak with clients.

Escobar said the moral aspect of keeping the contract helped her come to a decision.

“We renegotiate the contract next year. From my perspective, this issue is resolved for me,” Escobar said. “The moral discussion has made up my mind for me.”

Not everyone agrees with Perez’s numbers.

“On average it may cost $89 a day to house a prisoner, but the federal prisoners cost less than the state (prisoners),” El Paso County sheriff Richard Wiles said back on June 12. “If I thought for a minute this was good for El Paso, I would be the one bringing it up,” Wiles said. “It’s not good to lose the revenue stream.”

Perez argued that if the County were to terminate this contract, it would also be able to get rid of the downtown county jail.

In his presentation back in June, Perez said the cost of running the downtown jail is over $36 million, and the cost of running the annex in far East El Paso is around $33.5 million.

“To use local tax payer dollars for something that’s ultimately not their responsibility I don’t think is a wise use of tax payer funds,” Perez said.

During the meeting, commissioner David Stout said he supports Escobar. He also acknowledged even if the county might potentially be subsidizing the contract, he would still support it from a moral perspective.

“I think that’s significant. If that’s the court’s position, then I think they just need to be upfront and honest with the public about it,” Perez said.

Escobar said there’s still work to be done when it comes to the downtown jail. She said it’s inefficient.

“We do have to look at the future of the facility. It is an aging facility. We’re going to need to pour more maintenance to it,” Escobar said. “Next year is the first year that we are eligible for renegotiation with the feds, and so there’s a lot we can do in preparation for that. But in terms of the question ‘should we terminate today?’ that’s resolved for me.”

Perez said he stands behind the numbers from his jail cost analysis.

“Given what’s happened within the last week in storm water, and all of these other issues that the county has difficulty funding fully — there’s other needs that we need to prioritize,” Perez said. “When it comes to this particular issue, I think the federal government needs to step up and do its part.”