The Tarrant County Commissioners Court has voted unanimously to give the county administrator, Chandler Merritt, the authority to send the official notice to terminate the contract with the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility in Garza County.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the court voted in February to cancel its private jail contract with Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility after it purportedly failed to meet jail standards.
“It’s the best business decision to get out of a county a couple hundred miles away and make sure that we can effectively guard prisoners that [are] supposed to be in Tarrant County,” Commissioner Manny Ramirez told KERA News.
People from the community have opposed the continuation of the private jail contract.
“Recently, we learned they have been out of compliance with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards in six areas. Our contract requires that if they are out of compliance, they must immediately notify us. For six weeks, they did not notify us,” Harriet Harral from Broadway Baptist Church Justice Committee told The Dallas Express.
Commissioners provided comments regarding this decision.
“It’s been a long process in getting to this point, but we’ve gotten here. And thank goodness that we have,” said Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks during a July 16 meeting, reported NBC 5 DFW.
“The process of bringing home 400 folks, I understand that that’s going to be complicated and difficult,” acknowledged Ramirez, per NBC 5.
Ramirez added that the administrator’s office and Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office will collaborate to ensure the swift and safe return of the inmates.