Grayson County Sheriff Keith Gary cut to the chase this week in saying he believes the county should get ready to build a new jail.

The occasion was a Tuesday night meeting co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Sherman and Grayson County for a discussion of the need for a new jail. The discussion revolved around a final report on the comprehensive correctional needs assessment, for which Grayson County paid $98,000 to have completed. Gary, along with local residents Helen Perkins and Joe Neal Smith, represented a committee that studied the current jail's problems.

Some who attended asked what steps the county has taken to implement the changes suggested in the report and how much longer it will take to implement others. They also wanted to know if all of those suggestions, when taken together, would keep the county from needing a new jail.

The sheriff made no bones about his desire to "start all over and do it right." Doing so, he said, would allow the county to add things desperately needed like a proper medical facility and an adequate intake and release space.

If a new jail isn't possible, Gary said, then he feels the county should at least follow consultants' advice to add additional maximum security beds.

Gary praised the work that has already been done to make the changes indicated in the report. However, he said, he thinks the county should still get ready to build.

Then, Gary explained the problems at the jail. They are, he said, multi-layered. First is the lack of maximum security beds. While many of the options discussed for clearing people out of the jail won't affect those inmates, Gary said they could open up space that might be converted to maximum security.

State law forbids the county to mix maximum and minimum security inmates. The county can mix medium security inmates with either their minimum or the maximum security counterparts.

Second, there is the problem of space in the book-in area. That area was built in the 1980s to handle about 80 people. Now it handles about 400. He said the area is just completely out of space and the lack of space makes it inefficient.

"Until we get more space, it won't get much better," Gary said.

Finally, Gary said the jail needs a space designated for medical treatment.

While Gary gave those who attended a look at the jail from the inside, Perkins, a licensed chemical dependence counselor, and Smith, a local defense attorney, both spoke from an outsider's perspective.

Perkins said she has spent decades dealing with addicts in this area.

"Sometimes jail saves (an addict's) life and sometimes it saves other people's lives," Perkins said. She said she would like to see the Grayson County Jail have space for a treatment facility for drug addicts or at least have the space to hold them until beds open up in other treatment centers.

Smith said the overcrowding at the jail leads back to a "fundamental change" in the way residents of Grayson County see crime. He said about 10 years ago everyone decided to be "tough on crime." That is all fine, Smith said, but at some point one has to pay for the increased jail population such a stance causes.

"I don't know that I am for a new jail. I don't know that I am against it," Smith said. He said he does know that the county is going to have to do something to address the overcrowding problems.

"The jail commission is not going to let us house maximum security prisoners in minimum security cells or stack them in like sausages," Smith said. He said he thinks judges and defense attorneys are doing their part to move the cases along, but there "are just so many cases that they are drowning."

Fixing the problems will require more money, more people and more space, Smith said, and if the county doesn't provide those things, the problems will stay the same.

The committee members did speak about some things that are working to reduce the number of people in the jail. From the county's new Drug Court, to moving paper work faster and keeping better track of inmates, those who spoke Wednesday night said the county is attacking the problem from every angle.

Perkins talked about the success of the county's Starr Drug Court. The Court, run by 59th state District Court Judge Rayburn Nall Jr., gives those charged with non-violent drug charges a chance to win their battle against drug addiction. Defendants who are charged with manufacturing drugs cannot participate in the program.

When asked about the program, Perkins said the Drug Court is getting ready to graduate its first group of successful candidates. She said the program has more applicants than it has space. It is popular, she said, because it provides inmates with a chance to get into a structured program that helps them turn their lives around.

Inmates accepted into the program have to attend daily Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, see a probation officer twice a week, pass a drug test twice a week and attend group and solo counseling sessions. They also have to show up for court once a month.

"They are staying sober," Perkins said. She said those who don't have to deal with sanctions imposed by the Court. "And those are not pretty."

Gary said everyone in the justice system is working hard to make sure the paperwork needed to send convicted people off to the Texas Department of Prisons gets done as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Gary praised Grayson County Judge Tim McGraw for working to cut the number of days pen packets take to complete from 30 or 45 to six or 10.

Judge Lauri Blake, 336th State District Court, said the new court coordinators assigned to each district court have helped to move cases along and keep better track of them. She said having a supervising court coordinator who is responsible for keeping track of the oldest cases has also helped.

Gary talked about the fact that county commissioners recently hired three new prosecutors to try cases that can't be scheduled in the other courts. A visiting judge has been hired to hear cases in that court. Grayson County District Judge Lauri Blake said every effort is being made to move cases into that new program.

A Family Court, much like the Drug Court, is also being planned. That court would look at the underlying issues involved in domestic violence charges and strive to help those defendants stop behavior that result in their incarceration and the deterioration of local families.

Gary said if the county does not build a completely new jail, he thinks the county will have to adopt some sort of pre-trial release program. He said, most bondsmen in the area currently require a defendant to put up 20 percent of their bond. He proposed that the county go with a program that would allow people to bond out by putting up 3 percent of their bond amount. He said that would allow more people to await trial on the outside and free up jail space.

The bottom line, Gary said, is the fact that the people of Grayson County are either going to have to pay to build a new jail or they are going to have to pay for programs to keep people out of the current one. Those programs include the pre-trial release program as well as drug and alcohol treatment programs.

Others argued that the real issue should come down to deciding between spending money to deal with the after-effects of the problems or on treating people before they become problems. Tony Maddox, director of Mental Health Mental Retardation Services of Texoma, and others suggested that the money the county would spend on a jail would be better spent on building a mental health treatment center.

Gary encouraged people who are interested in the situation at the jail to get a copy of the report and become better educated about the issues facing the county's criminal justice system.