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Build accountability, not a building On Monday, April 27, the Colorado County Commissioners Court approved an architectural assessment for a proposed new justice center. According to reporting in this paper, the jail recently passed inspection but has rust documented since 2024, out-of-compliance sliding doors, no space for additional female inmates, only one psych cell, and no room for sheriff’s office staff growth.
The solution proposed? Spend more money.
Before this county asks taxpayers for another dollar, someone needs to answer a straightforward question: what happened to the $2.2 million in federal Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) funds — American Rescue Plan Act money specifically designated for the Colorado County Jail’s compliance and infrastructure — that this county already received?
That money came with compliance requirements. It comes with a federal audit window running through 2030. The federal government can still demand accountability for every dollar of it. And yet, by the Sheriff’s own admission, “Our facility has gotten 30 years out of it without any updates.”
If the facility went 30 years without updates, what was the $2.2 million spent on? And if it was spent properly, why is the rust the Sheriff cited as a compliance issue documented as recent as 2024 — three years into the federal grant period?
According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the Colorado County Jail has a rated capacity of 99 beds. The Sheriff said, quoted in the Citizen, that the jail currently houses 60 inmates, compared to 80 this time last year. That is roughly 60 percent of capacity today, and just over 80 percent at its recent peak. This is not a facility that has run out of room. It is a facility with 10 female beds in a 99-bed building, paying $100 a day to house female inmates elsewhere because the county configured the jail this way.
That is not a square footage problem. It is a planning problem, and it is one that does not require a new justice center to fix.
Asked what happens if the jail fails its next review, Sheriff Lindemann said in Citizen, “Then, we shut down, and we have to pay more tax dollars.” That is the choice this county is asking taxpayers to make: more tax dollars now for a new justice center, or more tax dollars later when the existing one is shut down. Either way, the bill comes to the same people. And in neither scenario has anyone explained where the last $2.2 million went.
Colorado County has a pattern of accepting federal funds, failing to achieve compliance, and then asking for more money when the problems persist. The answer is not a new building. The answer is accountability for the one already paid for.
Taxpayers deserve to know where $2.2 million went before they are asked to fund what comes next.
Wayne McKnight Columbus
