Grayson County Sheriff’s Office holds public meeting in face of jail expansion pushback

Published: Jun. 30, 2022 at 12:19 PM CDT

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - The Grayson County Jail held a public meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss plans to expand the facility in the wake of overcrowding.

The sheriff’s office said it regularly moves inmates to other counties for space.

They said the jail’s capacity is 391 inmates, and on Wednesday, they sent 19 inmates to other counties because they didn’t have enough space.

But they said transferring inmates comes with a cost to taxpayers of an average of $60 a day.

Commissioners approved the expansion in December at the current downtown location of the jail, where they would make more space along the northwest corner of S. Crockett and W. Cherry street.

So far, the sheriff’s office said expanding the current jail means they have access to $16 million federal dollars versus if they relocated and built a new facility.

They also said relocating could increase tax rates by 40 percent.

“This is a solution that allows future commissioners courts to properly prepare for the future,” said Grayson County Sheriff Tom Watt. “We need beds several years ago. We’ve been over capacity since 2013.”

Yet others are pushing back, asking for the building to be relocated because of their concern that it will hurt downtown Sherman and its business and the county will outgrow it too soon.

“You’re putting a band-aid on something instead of making it a bigger facility with a bond issue that wouldn’t have to go through this again in five-ten years,” said one person at the public meeting.

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