The journey — and challenges — of the Tom Green County Jail, from 1875 until today

Tom Green County's new jail facility, under construction at 3262 U.S. 277 N., northeast of San Angelo, is a far cry from San Angelo's first jail — although both of them, and all the jails in between, have presented their own challenges.

The first jail in San Angelo was a small building, fashioned in simple-but-sturdy frontier style, built just across the river from Fort Concho in 1875 to provide a secure lockup for rowdy patrons.

The log stockade had a sod roof and no window, and according to historical accounts, the little jail suffered considerable damage one night when a group of soldiers on leave from the fort were put inside to sober up, and wound up setting fire to the structure. Reports say they barely got them out before they were overcome by smoke.

Back then, the Tom Green County Jail was in Ben Ficklin. The stone structure was built in 1878, just a few years before a flood carried the town away, effectively moving the seat of government to its current location.

The next solid county jail was at 116 W. Harris Ave. in San Angelo, built for $23,500 in 1884, and it was already too small a decade later, when famous local architect Oscar Ruffini was retained to supervise major additions.

As the population of the area grew, the need for secure jail space increased, and the jail was again enlarged and improved in 1917. For several decades, projects were initiated every few years to repair or replace worn out fixtures or add a few cells.

The building was showing serious signs of deterioration in the 1950s, as the county considered better ways to care for prisoners and keep the place together.

According to an article from October 1951, county commissioners gathered informally on a Saturday to consider an annex for the jail, designed to handle mentally ill prisoners.

Commissioner John Lochaby said, “We need the annex primarily because of the poor facilities we have for handling the insane. They are kept in the third floor of the jail and sometimes it takes four men to get a violently insane person up those stairs.”

The article states that officials were not optimistic about getting it done any time in the immediate future.

“Like everything else,” County Judge Joe L. Mays said at that time, “we’ll have to get the money first.”

In 1957, the County spent $53,000 on the facility, adding a 19-man cell block, and replacing some radiators, wiring and rusted-out steel plates.

The article from Jan. 24 of that year mentions that Sheriff Cecil Turner had pleaded with officials for added room and repairs since January 1956, saying the county was “inviting a dangerous situation” unless the defects were remedied.

At that time, the jail’s capacity was 32 prisoners, and it routinely housed 45-70 prisoners, Turner said, adding “the county is asking for a jail break unless needed repairs are made.

“We came close to a jail break three weeks ago,” he said. “Prisoners took a square piece of metal out of the wall, and were chiseling through the brick wall when jailer Gene Hill heard them.”

Another article from that year quotes Turner saying prisoners were making string ropes from their mattresses to draw up food and other forbidden items from the outside.

“A recent shakedown produced marijuana cigarettes brought up by the method,” the sheriff told the Standard-Times.

The jail issue finally came to a head due largely to prisoner escapes, which became common by the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to news reports.

In 1972, two federal officials toured the facility with Sheriff Odell Wagner and wrote a report that ultimately recommended an extensive overhaul of the existing structure over new construction, despite the obvious challenges.

At that time, the facility’s capacity was reported at 67.

Newspaper articles and editorials from that era offered a variety of ideas to improve the local jail situation.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the Lone Star State, many counties faced similar difficulties, and in 1975, the state created the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to implement state policies for minimum standards regarding construction, equipment, maintenance and operation of jail facilities under state jurisdiction; the custody, care and treatment of inmates; and programs of rehabilitation, education and recreation for inmates in county and municipal jails.

For a while, the idea of a joint facility operated by the county and the City of San Angelo was discussed, but it was not to be. After several more years of deliberating, Judge Edd B. Keyes and the Commissioners Court decided to build a new jail for an estimated $1.5 million in 1976.

The facility featured a closed-circuit video system and equipment that allowed jailers to listen to every part of the facility. It had a padded cell and room for 100 prisoners.

The new jail was constructed at 122 W. Harris, two feet away from the old jail, and despite vigorous efforts by some local preservationists to save the building and place it on the historical register, it was demolished in 1977.

During the initial inspection, nine months after the new Tom Green County Jail opened, the Commission deemed the jail “outstanding,” even though they found it did not meet 35 of the 343 minimum-mandatory standards established at that time.

In the four decades since it was built, the county jail has been extensively renovated, and as of last year it contained 446 beds, with a population that sometimes reached 540, according to County Judge Steve Floyd.

That forced the county to spend roughly $820,000 on housing inmates in other county jails during Fiscal Year 2017, and created budget shortfalls because only $30,000 had been budgeted for that expense.

Judge Floyd offered some perspective on the challenges a county faces in constructing a new jail facility.

RELATED: Tom Green County eyes accelerated timeline for additions to new jail

“The Texas Commission on Jail Standards controls every possible aspect of the system,” Floyd said.

“Things you’ve never thought of — from smoke evacuation systems to security, and on and on and on. … It’s a very comprehensive set of design specifications and a lengthy approval process, from the very beginning with site plans, and then just on and on and on. It really touches every phase of operations … from how the commissary can have food prepared, to how many calories people need and what kind of utensils we can have – it’s complete oversight.”

While the county got 92 years out of the 1884 jail, Judge Floyd said they have learned to be very realistic about expanding needs, and he asked for a facility that could reasonably be expected to last 50 to 70 years in his initial needs assessment.

“That was my request,” he said. “I asked them to look at a 50-plus year phased plan, and this one can probably go beyond that because of its location.

“The problem with the downtown jail is that it’s been there forever, and the town grew up around it … so as its footprint needed to grow, we were landlocked.”

Floyd said the new jail is planned to go in operation with 553 beds, and the compound’s design can be added onto in a way that allows for up to 900 beds in the future.

“I believe it can be good for about 50 years, and there’s more room out there generally, so hopefully that will get us up to 75 years,” he said.

Floyd said although taxpayers are typically focused on the bottom-line cost of jails, there are many ancillary considerations of prisoner care that don’t get discussed much.

For instance, Judge Floyd pointed out that the jail populations of today are more well cared for than in any period in history.

Many inmates need mental-health or medical care, and the duties of the county and its jail staff are vastly changed from decades past.

“More than 50 percent of the population arrives on medication of some kind,” Floyd said. “You mix medical, mental and substance abuse considerations – and some need all three – and it’s a much more difficult population we house these days. And once they come in, the county is responsible for them.

“There were just a host of considerations like this, which led us wanting to fix those problems once and for all.”

While the county had anticipated operating both jails simultaneously, a Jail Commission ruling about staffing levels made the idea “non-workable,” Floyd said, but ultimately the move to staff only the new jail will save taxpayers more than $1 million annually.

During the Court’s April 10 meeting, Commissioners approved a bond issue of $8 million to cover the cost of installing two more pods at the new facility, which is slated to open in mid-2019.

Floyd discussed the future of the downtown jail.

“All along, the question has been what to do with the detention portion of the building,” he said. “Because 90 percent of the main floor is busy with courts, and the Title 4 Master’s suite, which was my old office, and the county attorney.

“But I have a little ad-hoc committee of folks from the city, and downtown community leaders, to see what kind of ideas emerge, in terms of the long-term campus plan for the area.

“But the courts are really in need of some upgrading to add capacity, so that's the next capital item on the list, and so that’s the next step, really, is to reach out to the city and other folks and develop some kind of master plan.

“You know, it’s the county square, and it’s the center of the political universe around here, and it really belongs to everybody. We just happen to be stewards for now.”