Cooke jail contract renewal goes before Grayson commissioners

Grayson County commissioners had a contract renewal on their agenda Monday. The contract lets Grayson house inmates at the Cooke County jail in Gainesville. Under last year's version, Cooke County charged its neighbor $70 a day for each inmate it took in and accepted them only when it had room.

The renewal appeared as consent item 7.4 on the Oct. 5 agenda. The posted agenda does not record a vote, so it does not by itself show that commissioners approved the extension.

The 2025 contract left each transfer up to the two counties. Grayson chose whether to send an inmate and Cooke chose whether to accept one, with beds offered only as needed and as space allowed. The daily charge was not Grayson's whole bill. Grayson stayed responsible for inmates' medical expenses and prescription drugs, along with any nonemergency transportation. Changing the rate required both counties to agree, and the document does not show whether the charge changed for fiscal 2027.

Cooke County's detention center page puts the Gainesville jail at just over 200 beds. That count covers the whole building and does not represent space set aside for Grayson.

Grayson has used the arrangement while it enlarges its own jail. A Grayson accounts-payable check-run report dated May 12 lists an invoice of about $18,000 from the Cooke County Sheriff for housing inmates in March. SEDALCO, the contractor on the Grayson project, says the addition is designed for more than 160 additional inmates in shared and isolation cells. The project also includes renovations to parts of the existing jail, including the kitchen.

Grayson commissioners approved the previous renewal 5-0 on Sept. 9, 2025, according to the county's agenda record. That contract's first term ran from Oct. 1, 2025, through Sept. 30, 2026, and after that it was set to renew automatically each year. Either county could end it with 30 days' written notice.

The arrangement predates last year's vote. In September 2023, Grayson commissioners approved a Cooke County renewal that raised the daily rate by a tenth, to $55, according to county records. At that meeting, sheriff's Capt. Sarah Bigham pointed to privately operated facilities in Parker and Haskell counties that charged considerably more per inmate. She said those facilities had one advantage: the Texas Department of Criminal Justice picked up inmates from them directly.

Grayson is not the only county with a contract like this. Collin County's 2025 agreement with Cooke set a slightly higher daily rate. Collin commissioners have extended that contract through Sept. 30, 2026, according to that county's court record.

Jail populations have grown statewide. The Legislative Budget Board reports that the number of people held in facilities overseen by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards rose by more than 7,000 between the start of fiscal 2021 and the start of fiscal 2026. By the later date, it equaled roughly three-quarters of statewide capacity, a measure that does not show open space in any single county.

Other counties are building too. The jail standards commission's 2025 annual report counted 28 counties planning or constructing jails at the end of last year. Projects scheduled to finish in 2026 accounted for more than 1,300 beds. The commission cautioned that the estimate could change.