HAYS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
Hays County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to authorize the execution of a new Intergovernmental Inmate Housing Agreement between Hays County, Haskell County and La-Salle Corrections West, LLC. related to reducing the number of Hays County inmates housed in Haskell County and La Salle County, effective beginning Oct. 1, at the regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday. The amount paid to Haskell County would decrease as would the number of inmates housed there by 100 inmates initially then 25 inmates every six months; It would cost $1,865,500.00 from Oct. 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 at $10,250 per day for 100 inmates, $1,406,812.50 for April 1, 2026 to Sept 30, 2026 at $102.50 per day, per inmate for average of 75 inmates, and $932,750 for Oct. 1, 2026 to April 1, 2027 at $102.50 per day, per inmate for average of 50 inmates.
“I sponsored this because I felt that we were moving forward with a plan to fulfill our goal and commitment to bring our inmates back to Hays County, so, as many stat-
SEE OUTSOURCED INMATES PAGE 7A ed, [they] could be closer to their families, their loved ones and even to their legal support system that they need,” Hays County Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe said. “Currently, we have 200 inmates outsourced in Haskell County. Beginning Oct. 2025, … we’re bringing 100 of those back. So it’s a plan, in a relatively short period of time, to bring our inmates back into the county because we are doing well with our hiring process. We have renovated our county jail, and all of those things have to work together for that plan to be successful.”
Hays County Chief Deputy Brett Bailey clarified that after the 50 remaining inmates had been outsourced from Oct. 1, 2026 to April 1, 2027, all of the inmates would be returned to Hays County, but there was an option to return them sooner.
“We have built in an opt-out option at the end of the first year,” Bailey said. “[By] Oct. 1 of next year, if we have the beds, if we have the personnel and the means to do so, we can give Haskell and La Salle a 30 day notice, and bring back all of the inmates.”
Ingalsbe clarified that the contract would be legally binding without an out for one year then there would be the ability to opt-out.
Bailey said he was certain the jail renovations would be completed by the end of August.
“So we’re going to have the space,” Bailey said. “The personnel is the outlier that we just can’t predict. If we stay on track with the hiring that we’ve done over the last several months, we will have the personnel to bring everybody back.“
Bailey pointed out that the caveat is the amount of inmates. Due to the amount of beds in the jail, which has a little over 600, and 10% required to remain open by Jail Standards, there must be less than 545 inmates in order to all remain in Hays County.
“So the factors that have to be taken into consideration are the personnel and the population of the jail,” he said.
Ingalsbe said that if they had the personnel to bring the entire inmate population back, they still would not have the capacity at the jail currently.
“If I’m not mistaken, we still have contracts out with Comal [County] or other nearby, adjacent counties,” Ingalsbe said. “I’d like to consider … when that time comes instead of say sending 20 back to Haskell, that we use the adjacent counties to keep those.”
Bailey said it was his “full intent” to keep the contracts with neighboring counties.
Ingalsbe said that the county would do everything they could to expedite the return of its inmates.
