With crime, incarceration rates falling, Texas closes record number of lock-ups - Dallas News (blog)

As the closings continued, inmate population continued to drop, from 156,000 in 2011 to about 146,000 today, according to department spokesman Jason Clark.

The agency has become expert in the complicated human shuffling that's required when a prison unit shutters. Inmates are moved to other facilities, staff are reassigned to nearby units if possible and equipment is repurposed where needed.

"There's a lot of logistical moving parts, but fortunately we have some experience in that," Clark said.

The four units the agency will close this year are the Ware Unit in Colorado City, the Bridgeport Pre-Parole Transfer Facility, the West Texas Intermediate Sanction Facility in Brownfield and the Bartlett State Jail. The department owns the Ware and Bartlett facilities, and they'll be mothballed in case they're needed. The West Texas and Bridgeport units are privately owned and operated, which means the department will simply not renew the state's contracts with the companies that run those lockups.

Three of the four units have closed, and the fourth will cease operations well before the Sept. 1 deadline, Clark said. Inmates will be transferred to nearby facilities, and corrections agency staff will be offered jobs at other units. Clark said the shuffling will help alleviate staff shortages at some of the rural prisons where finding employees has long been a challenge.

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