Burleson joins Kennedale in sending inmates to Mansfield

Two years ago the City of Kennedale entered into an agreement with the City of Mansfield for use of their jail facilities. The City of Fort Worth was already using the Mansfield jails for their overflow. Now Burleson has joined in partnership with Mansfield. {{more}}

For essentially the same reason that Kennedale started using the Mansfield facilities, Burleson cited the cost of operating a jail facility. And for Mansfield it was away to cut the cost of maintaining and upgrading the facility. Mansfield Police Chief Tracy Aaron told the Mansfield News Mirror last week,

 

?At the end of the day a city like Burleson, they?re not on the hook for 100 percent of the costs and we?re not on the hook for 100 percent of the costs so we both end up with a better service at the end of the day.?

Unlike Kennedale which only sends a small number to Mansfield, Burleson will be sending an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 inmates to Mansfield?s jail annually.

 

?Mansfield has a lot of experience in the jail, handling Fort Worth prisoners for a long, long time,? Burleson Police Chief Billy Cordell said to the News Mirror, ?They?re obviously good at what they do.?

 

Kennedale Police Chief Tommy Williams referring to Kennedale’s agreement with Mansfield said, “It’s great. We were able to roll dispatch and jail into one contract that has actually saved us money. We are spending less money on the contract for jail and dispatch service than we were actually spending to run our own dispatch and jail here. And it keeps our officers on the street a lot more.”

 

Williams added, “What you are going to find is that a lot of cities are going

to start doing the share service with dispatch and jail both because to build a

new facility to house either one of those

or both the cost is just tremendous over the cost of just building

office space.”

Read more of the story at Mansfield

News Mirror