POST — The Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility, the largest employer in Post and Garza County, will shutter Monday as the facility’s operator pulls out of a decades-long contract with the county, leaving dozens of jailers out of work and officials scrambling to determine the future of the county-owned contract jail.
This comes after one of Texas’ largest counties opted to end its relationship with the operator, Utah-based Management and Training Corporation, when the Dalby Unit failed a state compliance inspection in December. More than 1,000 inmates from Tarrant and Harris counties have been moved out of the facility ahead of its closure.
The “vast majority” of Dalby’s 170 employees will be looking for new jobs this week, Garza County Judge Lee Norman told the Avalanche-Journal, and leaders in the community expect a significant impact to the local economy.
Pulling out of Post
Garza County avoided a similar situation in 2022 after the U.S. Bureau of Prisons announced it would not renew a contract with the county to hold federal inmates amid the BOP’s shift away from private prisons. The county and MTC quickly pivoted, converting the the nearly 2,000-bed facility back to its originally intended purpose as a contract county jail, the A-J reported at the time.
From 2022:Garza County officials announce change to Dalby facility as feds pull out
The change meant MTC, which Garza County contracts with to run the facility, had to reconfigure the Dalby Unit to comply with Texas state jail standards, and the unit has been operating under the contract jail model since. MTC inked contracts with some of the state’s largest counties, including Harris and Tarrant, which each housed about 500 overflow inmates from their respective county jails at the Dalby facility.
But late last year, the Dalby Unit failed a Texas Commission on Jail Standards annual inspection, and Tarrant County decided to pull the plug.
“Tarrant County really didn’t feel like they had been reported to and so they’re calling it contractual issues,” Norman said. “They just said, ‘We’re pulling out when we can.'”
The inspection found a lack of proper medical care, missed safety trainings, and other violations of state jail standards at the facility.
“We got dinged on some paperwork, which put us in noncompliance,” Norman said. “They were paperwork issues. We’ve heard various other things, but technically they were all paperwork issues.”
One violation mentioned in the TCJS report involved an inmate not being transferred to a different facility when the individual’s medical needs could not be met at Dalby.
Though the violations were later corrected, the failed inspection and what officials called a lack of transparency prompted Tarrant County commissioners to end their contract with MTC, KERA reported.
Officials in both Tarrant and Harris counties were not notified by MTC about the failed inspection and did not know about the jail’s noncompliance until they were contacted by reporters, according to stories from KERA and Houston Public Media.
Tarrant County commissioners in February unanimously voted to end the contract with MTC, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Tarrant County officials did not respond to the A-J’s request for comment.
After Tarrant County announced its departure from the Dalby Unit, MTC unsuccessfully tried to negotiate contracts with new tenants, leading the company to decide to end its relationship with Garza County, according to a statement the company provided to the A-J.
“MTC has been working with Harris County and other potential agencies to create new partnerships that would justify the need for the facility’s capacity. While those discussions are ongoing, they have not currently materialized into final agreements that will ensure the long-term viability of the facility,” the statement reads.
“MTC has therefore notified Harris County of its current intention to terminate the contract effective Sept. 30,” it continues.
MTC’s operation agreement with Garza County also ends Monday.
“Since Tarrant left, MTC could not find another county,” Norman explained. “So they just pulled everything.”
The inmates from Tarrant County were moved back to Tarrant County, while the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said its inmates will be moved to a facility in Louisiana.
“The closure of the (Dalby) Unit coincides with Harris County’s decision to reach a new outsourcing agreement at Natchitoches Parish Detention Center in Natchitoches, Louisiana effective Nov. 1,” HCSO wrote in a statement to the A-J. “Therefore, the closing of the Dalby Unit is not expected to have any significant impact on the Harris County Jail operation.
“Furthermore, the Natchitoches facility is located about 250 miles closer to Houston than the soon-to-be-closed facility in Post, which will make it more convenient for visitors and defense attorneys to visit inmates in person.”
Impacts in West Texas
While Tarrant and Harris counties will not likely feel much of an impact from the closure, the jail’s shutdown is expected to have wide-ranging effects on Post and Garza County.
“For 25 years, we’ve had that employer, who is the largest employer in the county, with good wages,” Norman said. “So yeah, it’s going to hit the economy.”
Ripple effects of the closure could even affect community members who don’t have a direct connection to the jail. The City of Post is expected to suffer more than half a million dollars in utility revenue loss related to the shutdown, meaning the city may have to significantly raise water rates to balance the municipal budget, the Post Dispatch reported in its Friday edition.
But Norman said the county is working to ensure the closure and its economic consequences are short-lived, actively seeking a new partner to operate and reopen the Dalby Unit.
In the meantime, the county will staff a skeleton crew to keep up with jail maintenance and improvements to make sure it is ready to house inmates again when that time comes.
“We’re moving forward,” Norman said. “We’ve got some painting to do, and we’re going to keep freshening up the place, because that is an excellent facility.”
Norman said county officials are attempting to be proactive to find a solution.
“There’s three other major operators, managers of prisons in the United States, and we’re reaching out to them to see if there’s interest,” he said. “We’re working all the opportunities we can find to get those employees back to work. … As I’m sitting here right now, I’m open to anything.”
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