Harris County weighs future of vacant downtown jail building

Taxpayers are still paying roughly $628,000 a year to keep 1301 Franklin standing, even though the 13-story, 811,079-square-foot former jail in downtown Houston has been largely closed since 2003 and no longer houses inmates. The cost of maintaining the vacant building has turned the site into a test of Harris County’s property management, with no completed demolition, sale or redevelopment decision yet in place.

County records show the building was constructed in 1980 and served as the Harris County Jail for only about 22 years. During a recent look inside, former sheriff and current County Commissioner Adrian Garcia described a building that never received state jail certification and struggled with serious conditions over the years, including failed air conditioning, rats running across keyboards, hidden wiring under the floor and even beds of snakes. Those problems helped cement the building’s reputation as obsolete long before it was emptied.

The county has spent years moving toward a decision. Commissioners Court authorized procurement for demolition construction documents in September 2019, approved negotiation for demolition work in March 2024 and then signed off in May 2025 on a $410,760 agreement with Walter P. Moore & Associates, Inc. for demolition documents, bidding and negotiation support, construction administration, updated cost estimates and permitting. County agenda materials say demolition would clear the way for a future court complex, parking garage and or county courthouse.

Garcia has argued that the site is too valuable to simply abandon, pointing to its connection to the Houston downtown tunnel system and its central location in the county government core. He has floated transitional housing as one possible reuse, noting that many people leaving jail do not have a stable address and can return to homelessness after release. Harris County Housing & Community Development already runs homelessness-prevention and housing-stabilization programs, giving the county a policy framework that could intersect with any reuse plan. But the alternatives remain costly and unresolved. County officials estimated demolition would cost $6.5 million in 2009, and Garcia said the price would be higher now.

The building’s future has been debated before. A 2009 Houston Chronicle report said Commissioners Court accepted a consultant’s recommendation to demolish the old jail while also discussing a proposed re-entry center at the site. More than 15 years later, the same downtown property is still waiting for a final decision, and Harris County is still paying to keep it in place.