The Dallas County Commissioners Court is considering relocating the county jail and criminal courthouse.
The complex which houses the jail and courthouse, formally known as the Lew Sterrett Justice Center, is located at the corner of West Commerce Street and Riverfront Boulevard on the western edge of the Dallas skyline.
The potential decision to move the jail and courthouse would allow hundreds of acres of real estate for development, which could alter Dallas’ city skyline.
The jail dates back to the 1980s. According to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department (DCSD) website, the complex is comprised of the North Tower Detention Facility, the West Tower Detention Facility, and the Suzanne Lee Kays Detention Center, all of which are located adjacent to the Frank Crowley Courts Building.
Within the DCSD, there are six detention facilities. These facilities can house more than 7,100 inmates with a detention staff of 900 employees. The Dallas County detention facilities are self-sufficient and operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
However, keeping up with changing jail standards on housing inmates has cost Dallas County millions of dollars in renovations over the years. To the north of the complex is an empty lot that remains undeveloped. It is notably a lucrative piece of land, as it is located between Dallas’ two iconic Calatrava bridges.
According to Jenkins, a new jail could be smaller and smarter than the current facility.
“If you can build it smarter and it leads to getting cops back on the street faster, that’s a savings,” said Jenkins.
County commissioners have reportedly already agreed to form a committee to make a recommendation on what to do. Next month, commissioners will formally name the members of that committee.
“Our useful life for our current jail is probably done in about five years. So, we need to have a plan for replacement certainly within 10 years, optimally within eight,” Commissioner J.J. Koch told WFAA.
“There may be some people that say, ‘Judge, just fix the old one. It’s cheaper.’ Well, that sometimes can be true. But if you’ve ever redone an old building or old house, sometimes that can be as expensive to fix up and build as a new one,” said Jenkins. “I’m interested to hear what the public has to say. It will be a very thoughtful process.”
Should Dallas County choose to move the jail and courthouse, it would return hundreds of acres of lucrative land downtown back to the property tax rolls. This would, in turn, allow for prime real estate to be available on the western edge of the skyline.
“When [former Dallas] Mayor Mike Rawlings and I were trying to lure the [Texas] Rangers, we were able to build with the Dawson Jail – the empty jail next door – if we knocked that down, there’s enough room to put a [major league] baseball field. But if you add all of that other land – obviously the Rangers are where they are, we’re not getting the Rangers, if you get all that land, you can do something really big and special,” Judge Jenkins told WFAA.
Jenkins noted that, by state law, a new county jail would have to be within 4 miles of downtown.
The county committee’s recommendation will likely take up to a year.
The county jail has recently been a source of frustration for the commissioners as it has failed several inspections and faces an impending overcrowding issue, as reported by The Dallas Express.
