Harris County Pays $38 Million to House Over 1,000 Inmates Out of County

Mothers grieving sons who died in Louisiana detention facilities stood before the Harris County Commissioners Court on Thursday and begged commissioners not to renew a contract with LaSalle Corrections. The commissioners approved it anyway, committing $38 million to continue outsourcing more than 1,000 inmates to facilities in Beaumont and Louisiana through at least the end of 2027.

The renewal, approved March 20, addresses a capacity crisis at the downtown Houston Harris County Jail that county officials say leaves them no alternatives. A state remedial order removed hundreds of beds from the jail, and despite Harris County ending a prior outsourcing agreement that brought roughly 300 inmates back from a Mississippi facility last year, the jail still cannot meet all conditions set out by that order, according to Assistant Chief Phillip Bosquez of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The Harris County jail dashboard listed nearly 900 inmates currently being outsourced at the time of the vote, though the contract is structured to cover more than 1,000.

Commissioner Lesley Briones acknowledged the bind directly. "We must approve this contract because we have no choice, and we look forward to the day we can end outsourcing, responsibly and permanently," she said.

The families who addressed the court before the vote were not persuaded by that framing. Kim Carlson, who filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Harris County and LaSalle Corrections alleging her son died after staff ignored a medical condition, put the question to commissioners plainly: "Why would this court even consider giving more money to a private prison company that currently has three lawsuits against it for in-custody deaths of Harris County residents?"

Carlson added: "I don't want a single dollar of my money going to the people who killed our sons."

Sarah Knight was equally direct. "You want to give another $38 million more to LaSalle, so we can keep using the jail to separate families, why?" she asked.

Two lawsuits have been filed this year connected to Harris County inmate deaths inside LaSalle Correctional Center facilities in Louisiana, according to Houston Public Media. Carlson's count of three lawsuits, which she stated in public comment, could not be independently reconciled with that figure from available court records. LaSalle Corrections has not commented on the allegations.

The contract keeps Harris County tied to private detention facilities outside its borders for at least another two years, a practice the sheriff's office has defended as the only viable response to persistent overcrowding at the downtown jail. Whether the remedial order conditions driving that overcrowding can be resolved before 2027 remains an open question the county has not publicly answered.