Dallas County is spending more than $20 million a month to house inmates at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, with the daily cost per detainee at $95.58, county officials said this week.
The average daily jail population has climbed to 6,924, about 400 more than the same period last year, driving per-person expenses up 11% to $88.
“We got 400 more detained individuals than we had this time last year,” Commissioner John Wiley Price said during a budget discussion, KERA reported. “The daily cost has gone from $88 to $95.58, which is $7 and 11% increase over last year.”
Sheriff’s officials have tried to ease crowding by speeding transfers to state prisons, but delays persist because of lingering problems with the county’s court computer system and new state bail rules.
The county’s 2023 switch from a decades-old system to Tyler Technologies’ Odyssey software has been plagued by glitches. Officials retired the old Forvis program before the new one was fully functional, leaving jail staff to fill out paperwork by hand.
Commissioner Elba Garcia had cautioned against rushing the rollout. The county has already spent more than $1 million trying to resolve the issues. The problems are worsened by Senate Bill 9, the bail-reform law passed earlier this year that has slowed release procedures.
Chief Public Defender Christina Dean told commissioners the law has created inconsistent practices among district courts.
“Some of the district court judges are requiring that you go to the proxy judge docket. Some are allowing the proxy judge docket or other district court judges to hear the SB9 cases,” Dean said, per KERA. “That’s a little bit confusing not to have a uniform procedure, but we’re working through it.”
County leaders say the combination of higher inmate numbers, rising daily costs, and ongoing technology failures is putting unprecedented strain on the criminal justice budget.