Reeves County Detention Center to close some units after losing contract with federal government

PECOS, Texas (KOSA) -

The Reeves County Detention Center is partially closing after the Federal Bureau of Prisons decided the staff didn’t address key problems.

Reeves County Judge Leo Hung told CBS7 that two of the three prison units will have to close down because they weren’t meeting standards set out by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Hung said the BOP is claiming that this prison complex had serious staffing shortages, problems maintaining records as well as scheduling follow up medical appointments. Because these problems couldn’t be fixed quickly, the BOP decided to end its contract with a few of the prison units.

That means all of the prisoners as well as the 186 employees at units one and two will be transferred elsewhere.

But they may not have to go far.

The judge said he’s going to do what he can to have them all transferred to the third Reeves County prison unit to save their jobs.

Judge Hung said he’s dissapointed by this decision because he says the facility still maintained solid leadership even though its difficult to keep employees in Pecos.

In a statement he said in part “We do not believe that Reeves County has failed to provide adequate care to inmates under its contractual obligations. Naturally, we are disappointed that despite our best efforts, the BOP has seen fit to close this facility.”

However, his focus now is to make sure unit three is well equipped and staffed so the county doesn’t lose that contract as well when the bureau audits it this May.