Just heard on the Channel 11 news at 10pm that Dallas county jail is in very bad shape for cleanliness, mental and physcial health programs are not up to parr and they are way overcrowed.

I saw that too. If prisons weren't full of people for drugs, we wouldn't have this problem. It said we spend 10 mil per year on overtime as well.

Hi, I just found out we have a family member in Dallas County Jail. We can't find anything out about the place because we don't live in Texas. We are worried for him. Can anyone answer a few questions - do they live in a big room or are they locked into cells. How long every day do they have to stay locked up if they are in a cell. DO they have their own cells? What are some of these issues you heard about in the news on the jail? I am afraid to ask, but must. We think of him everyday and are so worried. What is the inmate's daily routine like? We just want to get a clearer image of him, for when we pray. Are contact visits allowed in Dallas County jail? Tahnk you for any answers.

Hunterr, it depends on the unit he/she is assigned to. There are several towers but most are open pod type units where there are bunks and a number of inmates to one area. They are not made to stay on their bunks so they pretty much have free reign until the lights are out at night. I think but don't quote me on this but I believe the ones in individual cells are for dangerous or hazardous to others or protective custody type inmates. As for their days, it's up early for breakfast and then lights out late. My husband was in there for about a month last year and I hated it for him. There are NO contact visits whatsoever. However they do have church service several times a week and classes are offered. It's not horrible as it is a means of incarceration yet it's not a five star hotel either. My husband didn't get to go outside and he looked sickly when he was released because of the no sun situation. They are allowed as many collect calls as they want as they have access to the phones 24/7. Putting money on their books can be done, at the jail. I'm not sure if you can do it any other way. Medical necessities take time there as they are very short on guards so if an inmate needs to be transported, they must have a guard per inmate which can be timely. My husband called me twice in a panic when inmates were ganging up against another and it was a retaliation thing and I simply called the guard tower and had a supervisor respond immediately. Due to the shortage of guards, it's not a good thing. I think I read where there are 50 or more inmates per 1 guard!!!!!!! I don't want it to sound horrible but the reality is that Dallas County has not passed standard jail inspections in the last two years that I know of. Hopefully your loved one will not be there too long. Good luck and I pray its a short stay for your loved one and ya'll.

It was just on the news again - it said the health care was so bad it violated the inmates civil rights. They have 7 weeks to clean it up.

I guess they'll not pass one more time. Seven weeks is not near enough time to deal with the issues Dallas County has, currently. They've been attempting this for the last three years so I do wish them luck but more importantly for the inmates as they are the ones that are receiving the bad end of the deal as far as rights go. I'm not saying they're all innocent however there has to be "some" standards of humanity! Just my opinion.

Dg and Mia, thanks so much for the response. We don't get Dallas news here so we don't know about this investigation. We are just concerned about our family member's health. We have no idea what these jail conditions are that would require so much media coverage. We fear gang violence in the jail and also what happens to someone who cannot fight back very well. Thank you again for the information, every little bit helps.

I'm not going to say there is no violence in county, but from what I understand it's not like in some max prisons where gangs are well established and organized.

Thanks for the update, the news articles we have been reading on the jail are very concerning. How does a person find out what type of classification an inmate has, which determines where he wil stay in jail. We'd like to know whether or not the inmate we know is in general population or is in a place where he can be better protected. He is charged with Domestic Violence. We understand that certain crimes like DV and crimes involving kids cause other inmates to treat these defendants very harshly, and sometimes there is physical maltreatment. Is this true?

Yes it is true.

Thank you again for responding. Can anyone tell me what is the usual wait for a trial when soemone's in Dallas County Jail? Our family member is in DCJ pending a felony assault trial and he's been there for almost two months already. Is that typical? Should we prepare ourselves for a much longer term before the trial? Sorry if these questions seem dumb, we never had anyone go to jail before.

Hunterr,

Back in 2003 my husband was in Dallas County for 3 months because of an assult case they made him wait 3 months before putting him on probation...he is back there now waiting to go to Safp :( . Has your loved one even been to court since being there? Does he have a court appointed lawyer?

Yes, I would say that wait is typical. Even longer, sometimes, depending on how badly the courts are clogged.

I would advise that he not say his crime or just say 'assault'.

my boyfriend has been in dallas county jail for over a year waiting for his trial. it's still not even scheduled yet.

Hi, and thank you for responding. Incarceration of a family member is kind of new to us and it seems everyday we have more questions than answers. Would anyone be able to tell us if the conditions have changed in the jail since the federal investigation? Must we presume that becasue our family member has a previous felony conviction that he would be confined to an area that has other felons and not in some sort of general population? We fear the worst becasue of that conviction record he has. We read the rules for visitation and we have to travel far to see him, do we need to be on some sort of visitors list or can we show up during visting hours unanounced? Thanks so much for any info or answers any of you can provide. Keep a good thought.

Dallas has 3 months to fix jail


Understaffing may force county to pay millions to send inmates elsewhere

11:39 PM CST on Tuesday, February 6, 2007


By KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News
kkrause@dallasnews.com (kkrause@dallasnews.com)
Dallas County officials soon may have to shut the doors to their crowded and understaffed jail and pay millions of dollars to send inmates to other counties if they can't get the inmate population under control.
The county has three months to meet the state's minimum staffing requirement of one guard per 48 inmates – something it has consistently been unable to do – or the state probably will order the crowded jail not to admit any more prisoners.
If that happens, the county would have to pay to transport and house its prisoners in other jails across the state, at an annual cost of up to $18 million.
Such a scenario would result in "mayhem," Chief Public Defender Brad Lollar said. Defense attorneys may not have time to visit clients in distant jails, and inmates would have to be bused back and forth to court hearings.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards summoned county and sheriff's officials to its meeting last Friday for a status update on the troubled jail. The commission staff had been prepared to recommend the remedial order that day to close the jail but reconsidered after hearing about improvements in the works, said Allen Clemson, the Commissioners Court administrator.
County officials are now in emergency mode, having given themselves a 30-day deadline to reduce the jail's population of more than 7,000 by 1,000 inmates, which they said will bring them in compliance.
The state jail commission "told us we were subject to an inspection at any time and that midnight unannounced visits are not out of the question," said Commissioner John Wiley Price, who attended the jail commission meeting. "We take them very seriously."
The Dallas County Jail system – the seventh largest in the nation – has failed state inspections three years in a row, primarily because of inadequate staffing. Dallas has the highest incarceration rate among Texas' five largest counties.
The Sheriff's Department spent more than $9 million in overtime in the jails last fiscal year. But a surprise state inspection in October revealed the jail still wasn't meeting the minimum staffing requirement.
"We are both in agreement that you cannot go on like this forever," said Adan Munoz, executive director of the Commission on Jail Standards. "Remedial orders have to be put in place."
Mr. Munoz said a U.S. Justice Department report on the jail was the main reason he asked Dallas County officials to appear last week before the commission in Austin. The federal investigation concluded in December that the county is violating inmates' civil rights with dangerous and unsanitary jail conditions.
The district attorney's office, defense attorneys and criminal court judges have agreed to work together to dispose of cases quicker.
Judges will release nonviolent low-level offenders with lower bonds, personal recognizance bonds or a notice to appear in court at a later date. A similar move was taken to free up space in the Decker jail for Katrina evacuees in 2005.
For example, 125 people are in jail charged with prostitution who could be released, Mr. Clemson said.
County criminal courts manager Mikah Mitchell said that in the misdemeanor courts, inmates will be released if they meet certain conditions such as no immigration holds and no history of bond forfeitures.
Judge John Creuzot, who presides over the county's felony courts, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But Lena Levario, one of the new Democratic judges who was elected in November, said she will begin calling defense attorneys to ask them to show up in court and dispose of their clients' cases.
"I will ask them to come in and take care of it," said Judge Levario, of the 204th Criminal District Court. "We will not be releasing anyone who we think will be a threat to the community."
Reducing crowding
District Attorney Craig Watkins said his office began pulling the oldest state jail felony cases this week and will make more reasonable plea bargain offers so the defendants can be moved out of the county jail to begin serving their sentences in state jails.
Mr. Lollar, the public defender chief, said his office is already seeing better plea bargain offers.
Mr. Price, who heads the county's jail population committee, said some inmates can be given community service while others can wear electronic monitors while awaiting trial.
If such measures to reduce the jail population fail, Sheriff Lupe Valdez will move some of her deputies from patrol, warrants and other divisions into the jail as a last resort, Mr. Price said.
The jail-crowding problem is a result not only of the county's crime rate but also of its own policies.
The Dallas County Jail has the highest percentage of inmates awaiting trial on low-level, nonviolent charges in Texas – almost double that of Harris County, according to recent numbers sent to the state.
Most inmates are there because they cannot afford bail. Others, arrested on drug charges, are in jail awaiting drug test results before their cases can even go before a grand jury. That was a policy former District Attorney Bill Hill enacted in 2002 to prevent a repeat of the fake-drug scandal in which dozens of innocent people were arrested.
Under the policy, drugs must be sent to a lab for analysis before drug offenders' cases can move. The turnaround time was lengthy at first because of staff shortages at the county's crime lab, but it has since improved to about 20 days.
In Tarrant County, defendants are not admitted to the county jail until the drugs are tested.
Mr. Watkins said during a recent jail population committee meeting that he plans to re-evaluate that policy and possibly ask arresting agencies to hold offenders until drug testing is complete.
A decision several years ago to dismantle the pretrial release program has come back to haunt Dallas County. The program identifies low-risk inmates charged with minor crimes who are allowed to pay reduced bail to get out of jail.
The county is working to reinstate the program, which is expected to be up and running by next month.
In Dallas County, it takes longer to see a judge after an arrest. Police have up to 72 hours to file a case with the district attorney, not including weekends, Mr. Lollar said. As a result, inmates can sit in jail from five to 12 days before going before a judge, he said.
"We can't do anything with those cases," he said.
In Harris County, prosecutors work shifts around the clock and can immediately accept or reject a case from an arresting officer, Mr. Lollar said.
Stretched thin
As Dallas County's inmate population swells, the jail staff is being stretched thin.
More guards are leaving the jail to transport inmates to Parkland Memorial Hospital because of the increased trips ordered by the hospital, which is now in charge of jail health. Guards also are needed to watch the inmates at the hospital.
County commissioners recently approved 100 more jail guard positions to help transport inmates to the hospital, as well as 85 new positions for the Decker jail, but it could take months to fill them.
Mr. Price said the Sheriff's Department is having difficulty finding enough recruits who can pass the physical and psychological tests, as well as the background checks.
Mattye Mauldin-Taylor, the county's human resources director, said she needs 1,500 applications to fill 200 guard positions. Recruiting is not easy because of the nature of the job, she said.
The starting salary for a jail guard is $31,158, with a guaranteed 5 percent raise after one year, she said.
Mr. Clemson said that reducing the jail population by 1,000 inmates will not be easy but that he doesn't think it will strain the system.
State officials "expect us to take immediate action to get into compliance," he said.

WAITING BEHIND BARS
One of the factors in Dallas County's persistent jail-crowding problem is the number of inmates awaiting trial for low-level charges such as misdemeanors and state jail felonies. County Pretrial misdemeanor Pretrial state jail felony Total Dallas 571 1,102 1,673 Harris 500 436 936 Bexar 494 299 793 Travis 351 331 682 Tarrant 272 374 646 SOURCE: Texas Commission on Jail Standards jail population report, Jan. 1

Hunterr,

Contact the jail 214-761-9025 it will give you an options. They will be the ones to let you know how the visits go. I do know that you have to live 75 miles away from the jail in order to get a longer visit.