Monday Musings #49: San Antonio’s Westside Deserves a Jailbreak

Bigcitysmalltown started the new year with a bang in the Geekdom Podcast Studio, featuring individual episodes with Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai and former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is seeking to unseat Sakai in the March 3 Democratic primary.

Click here for the Sakai episode, which was released this past weekend, and here for the Nirenberg episode, which was released the week prior.

Both familiar leaders were in campaign mode, and each made a strong case for their candidacy as Cory Ames, our producer and co-host, and I listened. No questions went unanswered, and under a veneer of politeness, both candidates found the other a bad choice for the office. The 10-day early voting period begins in 15 days on Feb. 17, making this important political contest one of the shortest campaigns in memory.

While we invited the two Democrats to appear in separate episodes, we look forward to the Feb. 10 debate sponsored by the Greater San Antonio Chamber at Stable Hall at the Pearl, a new Spurs arena, and the county’s major investment planned for the Frost Bank Center/Freeman Coliseum's Eastside complex to be a leading topic of disagreement.

Both men claim to respect one another, but Judge Sakai, a back-to-basics style leader, has made no effort to disguise his disappointment that he is facing the Nirenberg challenge, criticizing the four-term mayor as a politician in search of a job. Nirenberg, for his part, has become increasingly critical of Sakai’s first-term performance, arguing that the county’s top elected official should set a more ambitious agenda. 

County voters gave Sakai a significant win in November with the passage of Propositions A & B in support of the county’s financial contribution to a new Spurs arena downtown and a historic investment in the Eastside complex that seeks to become the year-round home to events organized by the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. Nirenberg faults Sakai for not coming out sooner with an endorsement of the two propositions to counter Mayor Gina Jones, COPS-Metro and others who sought to postpone or defeat the two initiatives. Sakai can point to using the time to shape the Eastside investment package, which is likely what convinced voters to support the two propositions.

We did not ask Sakai or Nirenberg about an issue that I have written about for nearly two decades, without success, and that is my belief that the Westside is being short-changed on its own development by the hulking presence of the overcrowded, understaffed Bexar County Adult Detention Center complex. The county jail buildings and depressing row of bail bond operators that wall off the near-Westside from downtown prevent the city’s most Mexican-American enclave from fully participating in the urban transformation that is happening at the other three compass points.

I didn’t ask because I already knew Nirenberg supports that proposal in principle, and Sakai does not; practically speaking, it’s not happening. At least not now. Some place the estimated cost of shutting down the complex and developing a new one outside the urban core at $1 billion. I don't know if that's accurate. Still, I know the current complex is an eyesore, and building a new complex with sufficient quarters to alleviate overcrowding and the city’s continual growth will be expensive and will take years to plan and build, and then tearing down the existing, multi-building complex.

The county is an extension of the state government and lacks the bonding capacity to undertake a project of such scope. Most of the crimes committed in Bexar County, of course, occur in the city. While the city should share in the expense of any new jail complex, the big player should be the state of Texas, where elected officials are swimming in tens of billions of surplus dollars, yet are stingy in sharing those tax dollars with San Antonio or any of the other major cities, which vote blue in a red state.

It’s not even a conversation, and the Republican leaders who claim to be tough on crime, except when it comes to keeping guns out of the hands of violent, unstable individuals, don’t see any value in investing in the most marginalized people in our community.

I do. One reason the county jail is overcrowded and a place most law enforcement professionals do not want to work is because it’s a hellhole. It houses prisoners, some of whom are awaiting trial, some of whom are in for non-violent crimes but cannot post bond, and others who have been housed there as a result of drug and alcohol abuse offenses, other non-violent crimes, or antisocial behavior resulting from their mental illness.

San Antonio and Bexar County should set a state and national example. The city and county could have a state-of-the-art operation here, one that would attract wide attention, just as the Haven for Hope did in its first decade. County-hired specialists could e-sign more ambitious and relevant educational and cultural programs that emphasize transformation and improved mental and physical well-being. A complex in less-developed reaches of the city and county could feature as much outdoor space as indoor space, and thus would allow non-violent offenders to help grow food for the San Antonio Food Bank, join cleanup crews removing litter from the San Antonio River, the Howard Peak Greenway Trails and along streets and highways, and engage in other activities, all of which should pay a wage that could be used by individuals to help establish themselves as they are released back into society.

Many scoff at such thinking, but compare the United States and Texas, with the highest rates of incarceration in the Western world, with how other nations and cities handle short-term and long-term detention, and you’ll begin to see why recidivism levels are lower, crime rates are lower, and violent crime is less prevalent. In other words, our system fails the people it incarcerates, and it fails to keep the rest of us as safe as we would be.

Why devote space to a non-issue when there is no real push to move the county jail complex? Well, what better time than now, when voters are paying attention to this important county election? Consider the idea. It’s one worth incubating. Hopefully, Texas will become a state where its elected leaders once again make significant investments in the cities where the majority of citizens live and work. It’s nice to have all those billions in the bank, but it would be even nicer if visionary leaders could be found to make transformative investments in the communities and in the population of people spilling out of our county jail. All but a few of them will be free again one day. An investment in them now would pay real dividends.

Meanwhile, get ready to vote in the coming primary election.