MIDLAND COUNTY, Texas — Construction for the new Midland County Detention Center began in June of this year, according to Andrew Avis, the director of Public Works for Midland County.
This new jail will be located in Greenwood, nearly five miles away from the location of the current Midland County Jail.
According to Avis, the location of the new detention center was determined upon meeting certain criteria such as the availability of land, its proximity to the Sheriff's Office, as well as the Midland County Courthouse. It is all to ensure there is no encumbrance to other facilities such as the oil and gas industry, pipelines and wells as according to state laws.
"We're going to be able to house at least 750 inmates [...} we can house 500 right now, and this new facility is being built so that you can add on more space as needed throughout the years to come," Midland County Sheriff David Criner said. "This will be the site for many, many years down the road to help the citizens of Midland County stay protected and keep the bad guys in jail like they should be."
The upcoming Midland County Detention Center will stand on a 40-acre piece of land. The facility itself will measure 236,000 square feet.
"Outside of just holding as mentioned before, the kitchen, laundry, administrative and the booking section, there's also special housing for mental health and physically ill inmates that is being built into the facility," said Avis.
The use of new technology will also be incorporated for the safety of the officers.
"We have started something called 'Guardian.' We started it about a month ago which will be transferred to this new facility to where we do our checks and it reminds us [to] do our checks; the camera system is amazing," Sheriff Criner said. "It's going to be a nice, clean facility and can hopefully help recruit people to this area to work in the jail because it's a tough job. It takes a special person to do that, my hats off to the jailers each day because they face things people in society have no clue what goes on behind those doors [...] I love these people and what they do and they protect us."
The Midland County Jail uses a method of management called direct supervision. Sheriff Criner said the new detention facility will implement indirect supervision.
"Indirect supervision means we don't have officers in the same space as the inmates. There's two types of holding cells. There's group holding cells that hold eight inmates each, and there's individual housing cells that hold one person each, and it's a mixture of that based on what the Jail Commission says we need based on the facility," Avis said. "The Jail Commission defines the size of the facility and the number of beds based on the community, population and the demographics."
The Midland County Jail houses inmates from the local level to across the county. It also receives compensation when it houses federal inmates as they await for hearings in the federal court.
The Midland County Detention Center is expected to start being utilized November of 2026 upon approval from the Jail Commission.