When Tarrant County Sheriff Lon Evans ran the jail, he took pride in the place.
He just might be impressed if he could see what has happened now.Folksy, yet no-nonsense, he treated prisoners with respect, even sometimes lunching with them in the cell blocks.Elected leaders and voters also liked Evans, a former football star for Polytechnic High, Texas Christian University and the Green Bay Packers, and he served from 1960 to 1984.But in those days, the jail was on the north end of downtown near a public housing complex, because that seemed an acceptable use for the Trinity River bottoms.A new jail opened across Belknap Street in 1991, next to the new building housing criminal courts.But when the county outgrew that facility and officials were scouting locations for a new one in 2005, some of Fort Worth's corporate leaders didn't believe that putting it in a thriving central business district would be a point of pride.By then, the public housing had been razed, Radio Shack and Pier 1 had spiffed up the northwest part of downtown, condos and apartments were attracting more urban dwellers and the Trinity River Vision project was beginning to focus attention on a huge flood control/economic development undertaking on the north side of the river.Property had become too valuable for a public project that wouldn't be on the tax rolls, some people said. A corrections house might clash architecturally with new buildings and renovated structures in the central business district.But Sheriff Dee Anderson and other county officials had stronger counter-arguments. Anderson said that the county needed a maximum-security jail to house the "worst of the worst" and that locating it near the current jail and courthouse would make it easier and safer to move prisoners to and from court proceedings.Commissioners included the new jail in a $433 million bond issue, which voters approved in 2006. The five-story, 207,000-square-foot building was constructed west of the existing jail, to which the new facility is connected by a sky bridge. Tunnels link the two jails to the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, site of the criminal courts.From the outside, the new jail looks like a modern courthouse, with sleek brick lines and a band of pink granite around the first floor. But don't be fooled. Rooms in the 444-bed facility are 40 feet square, with concrete floors, a stainless steel toilet and sink, steel desktop and raised concrete bed covered with a thin mattress.Prisoners will get meals only in their rooms and can exercise alone in a slightly larger room three days a week. Visits will be by video monitor only.On Tuesday, county officials cut the ribbon on the facility, named the Lon Evans Corrections Center. At $78.6 million, it is projected to come in under budget. And the head of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards praised it as "the most technologically advanced jail in the state."Sheriff Evans would have been proud.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
