Bexar County commissioners advanced plans Tuesday to renovate and expand the county’s mental health facility on Applewhite Road, including approving the use of eminent domain to acquire property for the effort.
The project is expected to create a new 39,000-square-foot intake building that can house up to 130 mental health patients — people who would otherwise be in the county jail.
“This was done in concert to reduce the jail population and give alternate pathways for diversion for some offenders,” Facilities Management Director Dan Curry told commissioners.
The move comes as many Texas counties are struggling to house a growing number of mentally ill inmates in their jails in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
State hospitals are responsible for treating inmates who have been deemed incompetent to stand trail by a judge, but those facilities currently face major staffing shortages, causing hundreds of beds to be taken out of service.
In the meantime, mentally ill inmates are spending an unusually long time in the jail, endangering jail staff, other inmates and themselves, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar.
Last year Bexar County committed to use a large share of its federal pandemic relief to address mental illness, including $25 million of the county’s $389 million American Rescue Plan Act dollars for the facility upgrades at 10975 Applewhite Rd.
Of that $25 million, $4 million will go toward repairing the existing facility, with $3 million budgeted for the property acquisition and $18 million expected to cover the new residential building.
On Tuesday, county commissioners agreed to seek proposals from contractors who can both design and build the facility, an approach aimed at moving the project forward quickly. The county expects to approve a contract by November.
“We’re trying to accelerate to deliver this project not only to comply with the requirements of the use of ARPA funds, [but also] because we know there’s a real constraint on jail beds right now,” Curry said.
Compared to Dallas County, which earlier this year threatened to sue the state for not taking responsibility for inmates deemed incompetent to stand trial, Bexar County leaders have explored a range of options to take matters into their own hands.
The county recently launched a new jail-based competency restoration program to treat some inmates while they’re in the jail. That effort is funded by a federal grant.
Commissioners also sought funding from the state to convert an old state hospital facility into a maximum security unit where it can treat inmates deemed incompetent who have been accused of violent crimes. Funding to begin that effort was included in the budget the state House approved in April; the Texas Health and Human Services Commission will oversee the project.
Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3), who lobbied lawmakers to allow the county to run the new maximum security facility, expressed concern about the state’s ability to address staffing shortages that have already taken some beds out of use.
“We can build the beds to capacity, but we have to make sure that we also have the staff to man them,” he said.
On Tuesday, Government Affairs Director Melissa Shannon told commissioners the legislative session had produced some positive ideas for funding mental health, including plans for $100 million in community mental health grants.
“Both budgets see a push towards mental health, so that’s something that’s good for us,” Shannon said.
In a surprise to the county, state lawmakers also approved a bill compelling the state to reimburse counties for housing a different set of inmates the state is responsible for.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is required to take custody of people who have been convicted of a felony and transfer them to state prisons, usually within 45 days.
House Bill 2620, crafted by Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth), says that if the inmates aren’t picked up within the legally mandated time, the state will reimburse the county for the cost of housing them in the jail. The bill was approved by the House and Senate, and awaits a signature from Gov. Greg Abbott.
