Published: February 22, 2007 11:25 pm      

PART I: Cracks in the system

After 5 years, jail looks like it's crumbling

The door to the interview room screeches loudly in protest as Hunt County Jail Administrator Brian Alford yanks hard to open it partially.

The door will no longer open all the way, and to try and even open it a few inches creates a ruckus that drowns out yelling inmates.

The sound is so loud and piercing that those within hearing distance flinch and wary jailers on guard turn their heads to make sure everything is OK.

“It’s me,” Alford tells the alert jailers.

The door opened easily when the Hunt County Jail first opened in early 2002, but now, like many other areas of the jail, it has fallen victim to a shifting foundation.

“It was from the get-go that there were foundation problems,” Alford said. “Just like everyone else, you go to work, and you do your job and you try not to think about it. But when the talk’s around it, I think it bothers everybody.”

Cracks riddle many of the building’s walls and parts of the flooring. Braces have been installed to help support the ceiling — many along the jail’s east wall and in the women’s pod.

“I worry that the walls or ceiling are going to fall on me,” said jailer Paul Morgan, who works in the jail’s property room, which is lined by the braces.

A thick metal pole was inserted in one of the vehicle entrances to help support the ceiling. There’s even been at least one reported incident of a small piece of cinder block ceiling falling and landing near an inmate.

“A jail is supposed to be safe and secure, and you don’t feel too safe with the ceilings and stuff falling in — and the walls,” Morgan said.

The Hunt County Justice Center, which holds the county jail, the justice of the peace courtrooms, and the Sheriff’s Office, started to house inmates in 2002. The county started using the administrative side of the facility in summer 2001.

“I’ve noticed significant damage, problems since I’ve started here,” said Hunt County Jailer Baret Sanders. “When I first started here, I was surprised at what condition the jail was in — cracks around the booking area, the floor being uneven in a lot of spots and the ceiling considerably around the control room being sunken in and things like that. I was real surprised whenever I saw that for being a building that was five, six years old at that time.”

While the shifting of the foundation is most apparent in the jail, the other parts of the facility have not been immune to the movement. There have been reports of small shifts in the walls and ceilings in some parts of the administrative area, and some small cracks in the floor.

But for the most part, those areas have been spared from the worst of the problems.

The shifting foundation hasn’t gone unnoticed by county officials, and no one denies the jail presents a problem.

Hunt County voters may have voiced their displeasure about the jail at the polls last March, when current County Judge John Horn defeated long-time incumbent Joe Bobbitt during the primary elections. Horn, who was a sheriff’s deputy before being elected, had focused part of his campaign on the problems plaguing the facility.

“In terms of how structural deficiencies in there can affect things, communication, shifting walls cutting wires, a lot of the doors (and) a lot of things operate electronically. So mishaps might occur through electronic malfunctions — doors opening, gates opening,” he explained.

“I mean, you can see the possible ramifications of something like that. When you think you have a secure area and you turn around and your area is not secure, then you’re getting out of doors. You’re walking out of buildings. You’re re-entering society when it’s not your time,” he said.

In 2004, one violent inmate did manage to leave the facility before his time. Authorities blamed the inmate escape on structural problems at the jail.

Officials reported that the inmate escaped through the wall of the shower in his isolation cell by tampering with tamper-proof screws in the shower and digging through construction blocks that were supposed to be filled with concrete — but apparently were not. He crawled through the wall and then through the jail’s ventilation system before reaching the roof and making his escape. He was captured several days later in Dallas.



Seeing is believing

In another room, which was initially supposed to hold inmates, a four-foot pit remains where experts have been trying to identify why the facility has shifted so much. Wooden boards line the ceiling where the engineering firm of Walter P. Moore, the county’s structural expert, has been monitoring the jail to make sure it is safe for occupancy.

“When Walter P. Moore came in and did their evaluation, one of the parts of the evaluation is they recommended we do certain things,” Alford explained. “One of them was knock off loose materials. So we’ve already completed that, and so one portion is going to look worse.”

In some cells, large bare spots remain where loose plaster has been knocked off to meet the firm’s recommendations.

But overall, to the naked eye, the jail seems to look better than it has in years past because Alford believes in making the place as presentable as possible for both employees and inmates.

“We have employees that have to work here,” Alford said. “We have inmates that we house here. When I took over the jail, my thing is that, we need to provide the best we can, so a lot of it’s been painted and cracks filled in. The best we can do is provide for the inmates that are here and officers that work here.”

Because of the desire to provide the best accommodations possible, county maintenance staff have worked to cosmetically patch up the holes.

It’s not a permanent fix, however, because soon after the repairs are completed, the cracks continue to spread despite the best patch job.

“When the jail is being painted, it could be two to three weeks later and I could see that the cracks are getting larger,” said Sanders, a jailer.

Some cracks are so big, light from the outside shines in, and inmates have been caught passing illegal mail — called kites — through some cracks.

But, people do not even have to enter the jail to see the foundation problems.

There are cracks and uneven panels on the outside walls.

“One side of the jail looks like it’s going to fall off,” said jailer David Turner. “Floors aren’t level, doors won’t even open all the way, some of them. It’s kind of dark in places, too.”

One crack near the kitchen, which can be seen from the outside, is inching closer to the jail’s gas line, creating a potential hazard if the line breaks.

One of the biggest problems, however, is that nonload-bearing walls, or walls that are not designed to support the jail, have become load bearing because of the shifting foundation, forcing emergency action in the facility.

The shifting foundation has Sanders nervous about his and others’ safety in the facility.

“I’ve seen parts of the jail where parts of cinder blocks have fallen, and I tend to want to go home in the same condition that I left the house in,” he said. “I mean, I’m not really concerned about my own safety. I’m concerned about others, really.”

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which monitors all Texas jails, has also expressed concerns about the facility.

Since the jail opened, the Commission has required that it be deemed structurally sound. The county has complied with the requirements, and each time the jail has passed inspection to allow it to remain open.

The jail had been on the Commission’s risk assessment list for maintance problems and staffing shortages. However, the jail has recently been removed from the list for maintance problems because the Commission received assurances from the county and its representative, Walter P. Moore, that it was structurally safe for occupancy.

However, the facility still remains on the risk assessment list for staff shortages. Currently, Hunt County is one of 41 non-compliant jails in the state — the organization regulates 267 facilities across Texas. Detention facilities appearing on the list are those that are non-compliant and are therefore discussed each month at the Commission’s meetings.

Jails failing inspection generally remain in non-compliance until the governing body informs the Commission that the problems have been taken care of. An inspector will then return to the facility and reinspect it to ensure compliance.



Getting what you paid for?

Construction costs for the Hunt County Criminal Justice Center were about $14.44 million, Hunt County Auditor Jimmy Hamilton said. Including the $539,470 county officials have spent on the rehabilitation effort since the building was completed, the county has spent $14,986,108, Hamilton said.

“I think that anything built with that much money deserves better than what we’ve got,” Alford said. “Really it’s a nice facility, if it was built right. I don’t think it is going to fall, but I believe there are worries of pieces breaking off here and there.”

Other government officials share a different viewpoint of the facility, though.

Hunt County Sheriff Don Anderson said the old county jail had similar problems and Hunt County taxpayers have gotten what they paid for.

“I believe they probably have,” Anderson said. “We’ve had some problems with the structure on it. It’s not problems that we can’t live with right now. It’s being monitored and it’s just the structure of the jail. I think it’s safe for the inmates and the officers that work back there.”

Hunt County Commissioner Jim Latham also voiced support for the facility.

“I think it’s a good facility,” he said. “I think there are some problems with it, but I don’t know that there was anything we could do to prevent the problems from happening.

“I don’t think anybody could have built it any better than the way it was built. I think there were some problems that occurred after the jail was built that were unforeseen, and those problems exist all over the area here. That water has caused problems everywhere, and it’s causing problems in our jail.”

Hunt County Commissioner Ralph Green also agreed that taxpayers got their money’s worth because the county provided what the bond package promised.

Commissioner Kenneth Thornton also said it was money well spent.

“I think we got a good bargain on the construction. I think it is worth the $14 million. There are structural problems that have arose that we were not aware of. But yes, I think the contract work that was done was a good deal.”

But, Commissioner Phillip Martin has a slightly different view. While he said taxpayers are currently getting what they paid for, that may change in the future.

“So far they have (gotten what they paid for),” he said. “Whether the taxpayers are going to be able to get all their money out of it in the future depends on a lot of (the test) results and what takes place with these studies.”



See Saturday’s Herald-Banner for insight into the tests that were completed and what the county has done so far to remedy the situation.