New Agreement Between Randall County Jail & Amarillo

One of the things most people don't realize is that the counties in states have contracts with the jails in their area. It's not just build a jail and all is good. There have to be contracts in place for the benefit of the county and the jail.

Well the contract for Randall County was coming due, and if they didn't get something worked out, it could've meant all misdemeanor inmates wouldn't been able to be held at the Amarillo facility.

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Good news for us, bad news for inmates. A new deal has been hammered out and will be voted on by the Amarillo City Council on April 23. As usual when it comes to contracts, money was at the root of the issue. Randall County wanted to renegotiate some of the terms of the deal, so they gave the city a 180 day notice so they could try to work out a new agreement.

Jail contracts are a bit tricky at times as there are federal contract agreements they have to abide by so it keeps things fair. Both sides wanted something that was fair and equitable to both parties while staying in the federal parameters.

The old contract would have put the facility out of compliance and endangered the federal contracts in place.

In the old agreement, the city was paying a one-time booking fee of $200 per prisoner, as well as $100 per day. According to Randall County Judge Christy Dyer, there were some changes made to the contract the city initially offered up. They worked on some things and expect the new agreement to be in place by May 1.

One of the big things they had to look at was the rising medical costs. Healthcare has gotten more expensive in general, and it's no different there. They had to figure out how to account for that while still keeping things profitable for both sides.