The Brazos County Sheriff’s Office asked the Commissioners Court to fund a feasibility study and several capital items to plan and protect public‑safety assets, saying long‑term planning is needed to avoid costlier fixes later.

Chief Stewart, representing the Sheriff’s Office, said the feasibility study is “intended to plan and is for planning and designing of new housing units for the jail facility” and emphasized that building substantial capacity “takes years to plan and to do right.” He told the court the office’s bed space capacity is about 1,089 beds while the current inmate population is “roughly 750” and was approximately 860 about a year ago; staff noted that operational capacity is constrained by population mixes and staffing, especially because about 120 beds are at a separate low‑risk facility that would require additional staffing to operate.

Why it matters: presenters said the county approaches capacity challenges as a moving target, with potential state bail‑reform changes likely to affect local detention needs and create unfunded mandates. Stewart warned that sending inmates to other counties is expensive and that forward planning may save money overall.

Other sheriff’s requests and changes
- Special Response Vehicle Storage Building: The Sheriff’s Office said an existing outbuilding “is pretty bad” and that new storage is needed to protect patrol and special‑response vehicles from exposure.
- Public‑safety camera system: The office presented mobile, pole‑mounted camera units with cellular service and a vendor demonstration (Flock). Chief Stewart said an initial buy‑in would place roughly 10 cameras in county neighborhoods and that the system “will feed straight into the real time crime center system.” On staffing, Stewart said maintenance and monitoring would be handled by the vendor and existing systems and that “no new positions” are expected.
- Transport vehicles removed from the request: Chief Stewart said legislative funds from Senate Bill 22 allowed the office to secure two transport vehicles this year and that he “took a $149,000 off of our request” for the county budget.
- Equipment and small capital: the office also requested replacement tools used by inmate work crews, a dump trailer replacement, and a medication inventory management system (an $8,000 ask) to manage custody and liability around inmate medications.

Discussion and concerns: Commissioners asked about capacity numbers and staffing tradeoffs; presenters explained staffing to activate beds at offsite low‑risk facilities would add about 15 staff (three per shift) and that certain beds are not equivalent for operational staffing calculations. Commissioners also raised privacy and civil‑liberty concerns when the public‑safety camera topic was discussed; one commissioner said the technology “seems so invasive,” and Chief Stewart acknowledged those concerns while noting the camera vendor’s capabilities.

No formal ordinance or procurement award was recorded in the transcript; presenters revised their requests during the hearing and left materials for the court’s budget deliberations.