Juvenile detention center funding safe for now

   Social media is buzzing about the Victoria Juvenile Detention Center, as rumors spread like wildfire that it may be being shut down. Authorities say, though, that is not the case at all. 

   Jackson County is one of several counties with contracts to send juvenile offenders to the detention center when they are arrested. Juvenile Probation Officer Willie Caesar said if it were to shut down it would put Jackson County in quite a difficult spot, because the only other detention center for minors that Jackson County has a contract with is Hays County. Caesar said, however,  he has heard no official word that the detention center in Victoria is closing, and Victoria County seems to be just looking at expenses and figures, trying to figure out how to go forward with a building badly in need of repair, as well as the cost of housing inmates. 

   “From what I’m hearing, they’re just looking into things – looking at funding, and overall costs, too,” he said, “I don’t think anything is set in stone where they’re just going to close it, I think they’re just looking into the matter.”

   Victoria County Judge Ben Zeller said there is no vote on the table regarding closing the facility.

   “There’s no one trying to close the facility,” he said, “All we’re doing is asking questions about the facility, the revenues we’re getting, and making sure they’re working as they should be. There are lots of questions still unanswered, and we’re getting an outside firm – a third party – to review the operation, expenditures, contracts, and they’ll provide some analysis on the facility.”

   Zeller also said the budget he has proposed to the court for next year does allow for funding of the detention center.

   “We are just gathering data, asking the questions,” he said, “One of the false assumptions at the juvenile board meeting was that there was a vote scheduled to close the facility. There has never been a vote on that, and there has never been a vote scheduled on that.” 

   Zeller stressed that “looking at the expenses and revenue of the facility” does not translate to “attempting to close the facility,” and it may well be that once the analysis has been performed, it could be shown that everything is financially where it should be.

   “If you account for the revenue of the facility, it’s about $1.7 million per year, and we average about 10 Victoria County kids per night there,” he said, “I’m trying to figure out if that’s normal. It may well be that when we get all the data that that’s one heck of a deal, and we’ll move on, but that’s one of the unanswered questions right now. We are at the very beginning stages of asking the questions and gathering the data.”

   Zeller said the third party will be a firm or consultant found by the D.A.’s office.