County approves jail population project

The Hays County Commissioners Court approved an agreement between the Vera Institute of Justice and the county to conduct a study to improve the available jail population data for public information, jail population analysis and social science research. 

“This was recommended by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission in our last meeting to gather some data,” Commissioner Lon Shell said. “They showed us some great dashboards and charts that I think will really help us.”  

The jail population project would develop a repository of automatically updated jail population data.

Hays County employs staff dedicated to tracking jail population statistics but the agreement states, “there is an ongoing need to track jail population statistics and to provide the information that policymakers and the public need to understand and respond to what is driving the growth, or decline, of the jail population.”

After a report from Captain Julie Villalpando during Tuesday's commissioners court meeting that there were 38 cases of COVID-19 among inmates and eight among staff at the Hays County Jail, Judge Ruben Becerra urged all judges to do everything they can to keep cases moving as a majority of inmates at the Hays County Jail are pre-trial detainees waiting for their cases to be heard.

“We are one blink away from a contract being canceled,” Becerra said referring to the five facilities outside the county currently housing inmates from the Hays County Jail who may be cautious taking inmates from a facility with known cases of COVID-19.

“We are doing everything possible in the jail to keep it from spreading,” Villlalpando said. “Unfortunately with the amount of pending tests, we expect those numbers to jump.”

In response to COVID-19, the county finalized an agreement with Texas State University to utilize the student recreation center to quarantine Hays County First Responders who need to be isolated after exposure to COVID-19. 

The county is working on creating an additional COVID-19 testing site potentially at the Hays Consolidated Performing Arts Center for a five day deployment running eight hours per day. 

Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Villalobos is looking into using CARES Act funding and other COVID-19 related funding to support medical response, mobile testing and software to promote social distancing.

The Emergency Case Assistance Program (ECAP), also known as Project Recoil or the small business assistance program, has been finalized and the county is just working on appointing the award committee members who will review applications from businesses and decide award amounts. 

The City of Kyle is donating $100,000 to the fund which was jump started by the county at $500,000. The commissioners expect that Dripping Springs will likely participate at some level, however,  San Marcos and Wimberley are not expected to participate.

Hays County small businesses with fewer than 10 employees will be able to apply whether or not their local municipality is participating.

In other business, the court accepted a grant to the Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division for $3,000 for the use of equipment dedicated to the investigation of child exploitation cases. 

They also accepted a grant of $100,000 for Hays County Assistance to Veterans from the Texas Veterans Commission and to create a new full-time Veterans Services Caseworker.

Commissioner Lon Shell was nominated for the appointment of the Texas Water Development Board's (TWDB) Regional Flood Planning Group (RFPG) to develop Texas' first regional flood plans for this region.