Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0229 Page: 4 of 14
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The Honorable Matt Bingham - Page 4
cooperative agreements with any State, territory, or political
subdivision thereof, for the necessary construction, physical
renovation, acquisition of equipment, supplies, or materials required
to establish acceptable conditions of confinement and detention
services in any State or local jurisdiction which agrees to provide
guaranteed bed space for Federal detainees within that correctional
system.
Id. 4013(b). We have not located any federal statute controlling which officials would constitute
the proper authorities of any "State, Territory, or political subdivision" under section 4002 or 4013.
Sections 4002 and 4013 appear to defer to state law in this regard.
You assert that section 351.043 of the Local Government Code authorizes a county sheriff
to enter into a contract to house federal prisoners in the county jail. Section 351.043 provides in
pertinent part as follows:
(a) The sheriff or jailer may receive into the county jail a
federal prisoner delivered by a federal law enforcement officer unless
the sheriff orjailer determines that receipt of the prisoner may violate
a state or federal court order, a statute, or a rule of the Commission on
Jail Standards or the Texas Board of Criminal Justice.
(b) The sheriff orjailer shall safely keep the prisoner until the
prisoner is transferred or discharged by due course of law.
(c) The federal law enforcement officer on whose authority
the prisoner is received and kept is directly and personally liable to
the sherifforjailer for the jail fees and other costs incurred in keeping
the prisoner. The fees and costs shall be estimated according to laws
regulating similar fees and costs in other cases.
TEX. Loc. GOV'T CODE ANN. 351.043 (Vernon 1999).2
No court has addressed whether section 351.043 authorizes a sheriff to enter into a contract
to house federal prisoners. In a 1990 letter opinion, however, this office concluded that section
351.043 did not authorize a sheriff to enter into a contract to house federal prisoners from
Washington, D.C. See Tex. Att'y Gen. LO-90-95, at 4-5. Attorney General Letter Opinion 90-95
observed that when the legislature intends to authorize a sheriff to enter into a contract, it does so
expressly, as it has for example in section 351.0415 regarding jail commissary contracts. See id.
at 5; see also TEX.LOC. GOV'T CODE ANN. 351.0415 (Vernon Supp. 2004). The letter opinion also
2See also TEX. LOC. GOV'TCODEANN. 351.043(d) (Vernon 1999) ("In this section, 'federal law enforcement
officer' has the meaning assigned by 5 U.S.C. Section 8331(20)."); 5 U.S.C. 8331(20) (2000) (defining "law
enforcement officer" to mean "an employee, the duties of whose position are primarily the investigation, apprehension,
or detention of individuals suspected or convicted of offenses against the criminal laws of the United States, including
an employee engaged in this activity who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position").(GA-0229)
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0229, text, August 9, 2004; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth275125/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.