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Old prison to be knocked down as UTSA expands downtown campus

An old jail that holds federal prisoners will be knocked down to give UTSA room to grow its downtown campus.

Knocking down the jail is part of a puzzle the city, county and UTSA have all been playing to get enough land for the university to expand.

The building bordered by Laredo Street, Dolorosa, Nueva Street and the San Pedro Creek was once the Bexar County Jail.

The county still owns it, but it’s been leased for decades to The GEO Group, a private company that runs a federal jail.

"It's very convenient because it's just a few blocks from the federal courthouse,” says U.S. Marshal Susan Pamerleau.

She says the 600-bed jail holds inmates waiting for trial or sentencing.

"It's an old-style jail. It's not efficient,” Pamerleau says. “Lots of things have improved in terms of jail construction, jail configuration."

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says by next spring, GEO will move out and demolition crews will move in.

"They got 600 tourists in there that we don't really need in San Antonio,” Judge Wolff says.

The prime downtown real estate will help UTSA transform its downtown campus to include a business school, data science school and cybersecurity collaboration.

"Cities are going to live and die by their talented workforce,” Judge Wolff says. “If you don't develop talent, if you don't recruit talent and you don't retain it, a city will go downhill. And this is going to be a big, big step forward in helping us do that."

"How much do you think the county's going to spend to get to that step forward?" reporter Emily Baucum asks.

"The money that we'll spend taking that jail down,” Judge Wolff says, estimating about $800,000.

And to keep the wheels of justice turning for taxpayers, the U.S. Marshal needs to find new homes for the inmates.

"One of the things we're looking at now are local facilities where we could carve out some amount of space,” Pamerleau says.

She believes the challenge is worth it.

"I'm excited about that area being better utilized for UTSA,” Pamerleau says.

All of these changes will happen by next spring. The county also expects to get some downtown office space from UTSA out of the deal.

By EMILY BAUCUM