Collin County would keep sending some of its inmates to jails in other parts of Texas under four agreements on the Commissioners Court's draft agenda for Monday, Nov. 16, less than two weeks after voters turned down a bond that would have added jail space.
The sheriff's office is asking commissioners to approve fiscal 2027 out-of-county housing deals with three counties and one private company. Each runs from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027, according to the agenda memos:
- Archer County: $75 per inmate per day
- Cooke County: $75 per inmate per day
- Burnet County: $85 per inmate per day
- LaSalle Corrections West, LLC: a private operator; its memo does not list a daily rate
The three county memos point to the same general fund account, which shows $408,800 available. The LaSalle item cites a state law, Section 351.101 of the Local Government Code, that lets a commissioners court contract with a private organization to hold inmates in a detention facility it operates.
Purchasing staff note that the contract is made under that authority and does not need a formal procurement process through their department.
The bond that failed
The county laid out the jail space problem in materials for its Nov. 3 bond election. The largest piece of Proposition A, a $296.5 million court and detention measure, was $190 million to add about 586 beds to the Collin County Jail, through new construction and finishing shell space already built into the building.
The county's justification said the jail runs at or near capacity 365 days a year and that it has to contract for beds outside the county to hold its current inmate population.
Voters rejected the measure. Unofficial county totals show Proposition A with 37.4% of the vote for and 62.6% against. It was one of four county propositions, worth $817.5 million in all, that failed on Nov. 3.
