Longview Times

Bradshaw State Jail, a privately-managed, medium-security men's prison in Rusk County, is one of almost a dozen state facilities idled or closed since 2011, yet remains not for sale.

Almost 230 Bradshaw employees were laid off last summer, according to a letter from Management & Training Corp. (MTC), a private company based in Centerville, Utah, that owns and operates the prison, to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) in June. TDCJ idled the prison in August.

MTC blamed TDCJ's inmate relocation policies enacted to limit prison exposer to the COVID-19 virus, according to MTC's letter signed by Christina Pignateli, MTC's labor and employment counsel. The letter was described in a Longview News-Journal news story at the time.

Management & Training Corp Labor and Employment Counsel Christina Pignatelli | linkedin.com/in/christina-pignatelli-608b1913b/

"This has resulted in a nearly 25% decline in inmate population," Pignatelli said in the news story. "MTC expects this decline in population to continue. Moreover, due to COVID-19 the educational programming has been limited."

Idling a prison is not the same as closing it and Bradshaw State Jail's falling inmate population is in line with the state's overall drop in prison population, Henderson Economic Development Corp. Executive Director John Clary said in the same news story.

Bradshaw State Jail first opened in July 1995 with an official capacity of 1,980 inmates, mostly nonviolent offenders expected to serve two years or less.

Texas' prison population continues a decade-long decline, and is currently at a 21st century low of less than 121,000 last year.

Last year alone, Texas' total prison population dropped from 140,819 to 120,873, according to a Texas Legislative Budget Board report issued last month.

TDCJ has closed or idled 11 prison facilities, six of which have been sold since 2011.

Despite the closures, Texas is not lacking in prisons. TDCJ is made up of 100 facilities on 83 properties on 124,000 acres. Even with the Bradshaw State Jail idled, Texas had 12,434 of "Available Operating Capacity" as of December 2020, according to the Legislative Budget Board's report.

In October, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition Senior Policy Analyst Doug Smith told the Texas House Committee on Appropriations that the state's prison population can be attributed to "rapidly declining crime rates, decreased felony court activity due to the COVID-19 emergency declaration, and stalled transfer of individuals committed to state prison from county jail."

Smith also cautioned that it wouldn't last.

"While this reduction in incarceration seems promising – and is saving the state approximately $1 million per day – the numbers will likely rise again once the pandemic subsides," Smith said.