It became Dallas County's new, contemporary facility to house accused criminals in 1993. Today, close to 7,000 men and women each day either serve time, wait for trials, or transfer to state prison inside the county's Lew Sterrett jail.

The elected leader of county government, Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins, says it's time for a new facility — and it will cost billions to build it.  

"We've got to begin planning and doing the work, because we can't wait until this jail is absolutely just failing," said Jenkins.

Expansion and development in and around downtown Dallas have the county keeping quiet about future locations.

"So we are looking at sites, and I think we'll have land purchased this year," Jenkins said. "And a land purchase in the relative scheme of things is a very insignificant financial amount of this.
"When I'm talking about starting on planning and building of a jail, I'm talking about something that will open perhaps 8 or 9 or even ten years from now."

To complete a new facility in 10 years, Jenkins said the costs will be in the billions, based on a desire to build a jail that offers mental health and substance abuse treatment, trying to end the cycle of folks filling the jail, arrested over and over again for non-violent crimes.