Last month, Hidalgo County opened up the Willacy County Regional Detention Facility to combat jail overcrowding.

Hidalgo County signed a 50-year lease agreement worth over $59 million with Willacy County to rent out the detention center.

Inmates from the Hidalgo County jail have begun being transferred to the Willacy County detention facility. 

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LaSalle Corrections is currently guarding 254 inmates at the facility. The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office hired the company to run the detention facility for more than $13 million dollars a year.

According to Oscar Montoya, administrative division chief for the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, LaSalle Corrections currently has more than 80 detention officers, but they need 20 more to be fully staffed.

To meet jail standards, there should be one detention officer for every 48 inmates.

Channel 5 News was told the facility itself can hold up to 454 inmates at 80% capacity. 

According to Montoya, the Hidalgo County looked into expanding the jail, but a study showed a 700 bed expansion would cost upwards of $160 million dollars. 

“It was going to be at a much bigger cost, and it would have taken us five to six years to build a jail, so we need to have something immediate,” Montoya said.

In addition to housing inmates in Willacy County, the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office is also housing 300 inmates in Brooks and Starr counties.

Channel 5 News was told the Hidalgo County jail is at capacity with 12 hundred inmates.

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