SAN ANTONIO – Already battling an outbreak of coronavirus among inmates and staff at the Bexar County Jail, Sheriff Javier Salazar is facing another problem -- overcrowding.
“It’s an ongoing struggle,” Salazar said.
He said it was a struggle that got worse when he received a letter last month from Bryan Collier, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).
Collier advised the sheriff that TDCJ would “no longer be accepting inmates from other jurisdictions.”
The letter read, “We’re battling a faceless enemy that does not discriminate between jurisdictions.”
“We’ve got about 200 extra people under roof that don’t necessarily belong to us, but there’s nowhere else they can go at this point,” Salazar said.
“We can make it work,” he said. “We have to make it work.”
Collier’s letter, sent to all Texas sheriffs, did not say when the department would resume accepting inmates.
The letter said, “It is our intention to begin taking jail inmates when the situation stabilizes.”
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