Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told county commissioners on Tuesday that with violent crime arrests up and a jail already at overcapacity, more outside counties could be called upon to house local inmates.
As of Tuesday, 157 local inmates were housed in Burnet and Kerr Counties in an effort to meet state jail standards on local jail populations. The county pays those counties $65 and $85, respectively, per inmate per day to house them.
As of Tuesday, there were 5,144 inmates in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center, which is built to house 5,075.
The Democratic sheriff, who is up for re-election this year, said his preference would be to house as many inmates as possible in Bexar County to save taxpayer dollars.
"We could absolutely find other counties," he said. "We'd just as soon not. Again, in the interest of being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, I'd rather have them housed here if we can afford to."
There are no cheap answers for county commissioners or county taxpayers — either pay other counties to house inmates or pay overtime to jail deputies here, who are chronically understaffed. Another expensive solution is to add more jail space in the county.
Taxpayers are footing the bill for tens-of-millions of dollars in overtime costs each year in recent years.
Precinct 3 County Commissioner Grant Moody said now may be time to add jail capacity here.
"I know we've talked about doing a potential study, looking at future capacity options for the county and what that looks like," the Republican said. "So, I look forward to working with county staff and my colleagues on the court and try to move that forward in the coming months.
Salazar told commissioners the packed jail is also a sign the county's top lawmen are holding local violent offenders accountable.
"We take a lot of accusations," he said of his sheriff's department. "The DA's office takes a lot of accusations about being soft on crime. If we were soft on crime, the jail would not be busting at the seams and housing [inmates] out at other jails."
The homicide rate in the county by early October had already exceeded the total number of homicides for all of 2023. The sheriff said half of those homicides, or nine deaths, were related to domestic violence.
Sheriff's officials told commissioners the jail population in Bexar County is aggravated by the state taking long periods before it picks up inmates who should be serving time in state prisons. As of Tuesday, there were around 200 such prisoners in the county jail.