At Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting, Sheriff Javier Salazar and a panel of judges presented a $2.2 million check to mark taxpayer savings from Bexar Gives Back, a diversion program launched in 2020 that steers low-level offenders away from jail.

The program allows participating judges to sentence nonviolent misdemeanor offenders to supervised community service instead of jail time.

Participants log hours through groundskeeping at sheriff’s facilities, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and cleaning county parks, including flood cleanups.

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Since its inception, Salazar said, “well over a couple hundred” people have gone through Bexar Gives Back, with several dozen typically active at a time.

County officials said the $2.2 million figure combines the avoided cost of jail days — estimated at $80 to $100 per inmate per day — with the value of community service hours, calculated at $15 to $20 an hour for work such as landscaping and cleanup.

But the goal goes beyond saving money. Salazar described it as a way to keep families stable, reduce recidivism and ease pressure on an already strained jail.

“Jail is not the most appropriate approach for everyone,” he said. “There are people who are too dangerous to walk amongst us, absolutely. But there are also people caught up in the system who would be better served, and would better serve the community being out with their family, remaining gainfully employed and continuing to give back.”

County Court Judge Carlo Key, who now supervises the initiative, told commissioners that participants often feel pride in their contributions. 

“I see these people get vested in it,” Key said. “They’re proud of the work they do. It’s a great program and we’re doing great things with it.”

While participants benefit from staying connected to work and family, Precinct 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores stressed the program’s countywide impact. The newly approved budget set aside $15 million for jail overtime to meet population demands, a cost she said programs like Bexar Gives Back help reduce.

“It alleviates jail overcrowding and eases the workload on our deputies who would otherwise be tasked with supervising inmates,” Clay-Flores said. “That [workload] adds up to overtime and a higher cost of taxpayer dollars, which affects our general fund budget.”

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar poses for a photo during a Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday. Credit: Diego Medel / San Antonio Report

Salazar said participants often express gratitude when he stops by to check on Saturday work crews. Many tell him they feared losing their jobs or being separated from their children if they were jailed.

“If they can pick up a lawnmower and cut some grass instead, they’re thankful for that second chance,” he said, adding that diversion programs like this are a smarter alternative to jail expansion, which county leaders continue to debate.

“This is a good long-term solution,” he said. “We could double the size of the jail and it would fill up just like that,” he said. “If we keep doing more of the same, they can make this jail as big as they want, and it’s going to continue to fill — or we can get smarter about the way we handle this stuff.”

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