DALLAS (AP) — Texas will close two of its more than 100 state prisons amid a yearslong decline in the incarcerated population and serious understaffing at some facilities, officials said Thursday.
The closures of a prison in South Texas and another in suburban Houston will result in annual savings of about $20 million, according to the office of state Sen. John Whitmire, who heads the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
The Garza East Transfer Facility in Beeville, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of San Antonio, is set to close in May, but a date has not been set for the closure of the Jester I Unit in Sugar Land, according to Whitmire's chief of staff, Lara Wendler. She said both prisons were at more than 90% population capacity as of Thursday and that those inmates will be transferred to other prisons.
