(FORTUNE Magazine) – SAN SABA, TEXAS -- Were it not for a stream of state officials taking tours, the San Saba County Detention Center would be a quiet place these days. Three months after the finishing touches were put on the new, for-profit jail, the bond-financed 500-bed facility remains empty . . . A few hours away, at the Harris County Jail in Houston, officials cannot find enough room for the jail system's 8,000 inmates . . . The developer of the ((San Saba project)), N-Group Securities of Houston, insists the project will succeed . . . ''There's something not right here . . .'' said Pat Graham, N-Group president. ''We are a vigilante state right now. We are turning people loose, and the question ought to be why aren't we using ((the San Saba jail))'' . . . The head of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice . . . cites concerns that the profit motive in running a private prison could cause programs and services legally required for inmates to suffer . . . ''These jails are self- destructing,'' he said earlier this year. ''I will oppose using them to the bitter end.'' -- From an article in the Bond Buyer.