June 2, 1994
By STERRY BUTCHER and ROBERT HALPERN
ALPINE — In a specially called emergency meeting of the Brewster County Commissioners Court Wednesday, elected county officials moved to temporarily close the county jail in light of recent allegations of slack security as well as alleged drug and alcohol use within the jail population.
District Attorney Albert Valadez — at the request of Brewster County Sheriff Jack McDaniel — initiated an investigation of the facility after an April incident where an inmate walked out an unlocked gate, assaulted his girlfriend, then had her drive him back to jail. The inmate allegedly brought money back with him, with the intent of purchasing alcohol within the jail, Valadez said.
After the escape, the sheriff asked the assistance of the Texas Rangers to find out whether the jail personnel aided the inmate’s escape. McDaniel, who is in poor health, is at a Houston hospital this week awaiting a heart transplant operation.
In the investigation, two confidential informants who did not know one another were placed in the jail on two separate occasions. Though it appears that the escape was due to inattentive personnel, rather than a conspired effort to help the inmate escape, the informants individually reported the same information that narcotics and alcohol were being smuggled into the facility, the DA said. One of the informants later took, and passed, a polygraph test on the information which he had provided authorities, Valadez said. Based on the allegations of the informants, law enforcement officials instigated a Tuesday shakedown of the jail. Water was shut off to prevent inmates from flushing any drugs down the toilet, and each of the 24 inmates was strip searched and put into new uniforms, so the used uniforms could be examined. Likewise, all 24 prisoners as well as six jailers underwent urinalysis tests.
Commissioners moved Wednesday to formally close the Brewster County Jail on a temporary basis, and have made arrangements with the Presidio County Jail to take the.inmates. The inmates spent Tuesday night at the state detention facility in Fort Stockton pending this action by the commissioners, and should arrive in Marfa in the next few days.
Though the maximum occupancy for the jail is 13 inmates, at the time of the shakedown, the jail population stood at 24. “You have outgrown that facility,” Scarborough told the court. Scarborough stated that besides looking into personnel changes including the hiring of a new chief jailer, some physical aspects of the jail need to be addressed, such as tears in window screens and replacements or repairs to existing locks. Though the jail was renovated in 1986, the original building is over 100 years old, and commissioners expressed concern over old, or exposed wiring within the building. The commissioners court will again take up the jail situation at a June 13 meeting.