Sheriff candidates debate housing federal inmates

At the moment, Cameron County does not house federal inmates. Both candidates said they're in favor of changing that, but they disagree on the best way to go about it.

Primera Police Chief Manuel Trevino said the county should take in federal inmates as soon as possible.

As it stands now, Cameron County doesn't house federal inmates. Both candidates said they're in favor of changing that arrangement, but they disagree on the best way to go about it.

Primera Police Chief Manuel Trevino said the county should take inmates as soon as possible. "For years, Cameron County has housed them," Trevino said. "And yes, they have brought revenue into the Sheriff's office."

Trevino said the county could then turn around and use the new revenue where it's needed. "That is one of the ways to be able to fix our facilities, get more officers on the floor and get more to our budgets, with federal inmates," Trevino said.

Sheriff Garza said he's also open to the idea of housing federal inmates, if the price is right. He said that for too long, the federal government has only been offering to pay the county $55 per inmate. He'd like to see that amount come up to at least $75 for each inmate they take.

“At $75, it does make sense," Garza said. "At $55, it doesn’t benefit the county, the citizens of Cameron County, our detention officers or our deputies.”

But Garza wants to see the County Commissioners increase pay for detention officers first. He said he'd like to see annual pay rise to at least $38 thousand a year, up from the current $31 thousand that jailers make when they start now. The Sheriff's Department said it's having a hard time attracting employees at those wages. All new hires undergo a 30-day training period and pass a test in order to become state certified. Garza said resources are lost when those employees then leave to make more money.

Garza went on to say that most counties, including Hidalgo, have overcrowding issues that prevent them from taking on new inmates. The Sheriff said Cameron County's problem isn't overcrowding, it's under staffing.

In fact, Garza said the county isn't even using all its jail space, because it can't maintain the ratio of one detention officers for every 48 inmates mandated by the state. “We have four jails, Carizales, DC1, OCJ, the Old County Jail", Garza said, "Those are the three jails that are active right now. DC2 has been empty. DC2 could potentially house 200 inmates. 200 federal inmates.”

Garza did the math and said at $75 per inmate, that would provide over $5 million for the jail. The jail facilities have to be upgraded before federal inmates can be housed there, and Garza said his department has already done a lot of that work. Those improvements can potentially help increase how much the federal government is willing to pay the county.

During the debate, Trevino said he'd like to see things move faster. He argued the Sheriff's Office should work with federal partners in order to be in compliance as quickly as possible. “Get a checklist from them, find out what needs to get fixed. Find out what we have to do to get those federal inmates back in here”, Trevino said.