Numbers, costs continue to fall

The cost of outsourcing Hays County Jail inmates to other lockups fell again, according to figures presented to the Commissioners Court Tuesday.

In what has become a weekly tradition, County Judge Ruben Becerra read a rundown of the jail population, number of inmates outsourced, the counties they were taken to and the cost to local taxpayers.

The capacity of the current jail, which is in the process of expansion, is 362, but the population is effectively capped at 311 because the Texas Commission on Jail Standards recommends leaving 10 percent of the beds “open.”