Commissioners met on Tuesday October 21, 2014 in a special meeting at the Austin County Jail.  The only item on the agenda was, once again, to discuss the lack of jailers at the jail.  “With the current lack of jailers we need to look at sending inmates to Ft. Bend County again,” said Austin County Sheriff, Jack Brandes.

What Brandes was explaining to the court was that once again the jail is understaffed.  Currently, there are twelve jailers on staff and of those twelve five are new trainees.  Members of the department were at the meeting to explain exactly how bad the situation is.  “We do not have the manpower to accommodate the inmates we have right now,” stated Valdo Paredes Austin County Jail Captain.

With the current employees the jail cannot run at full capacity and is unsafe to run even at half capacity.  “Right now if there is a problem in one of the cell blocks there is no relief,” stated Brandes.

Austin County Buy And Sell Facebook Business Directory SEOTraining is the biggest concern at the moment.  The five new trainees need to be trained on programs that are used at the jail and also get certified.  Currently they are operating on temporary licenses.  “We need to send inmates to Ft. Bend again,” stated Chief Deputy Richard Holloman.  He explained that they needed to send the inmates away from the jail for 90 days.  “This would give us time to train our people and get them certified.”

Commissioners questioned the 90 days.  It costs $55 per day to house each inmate.  That is $237,600 the county did not allow for in the Sheriff’s Department budget.  Commissioner Reese Turner ask that they look at a better solution and come to the court on Monday with a better proposal.  He also ask that they train the new deputies in 40 days rather than 90.  This would cost the county only $105,600 a savings of $132,000.  Holloman agreed to look at being able to train the new people in just 60 days.

The problem with the jail being short staffed is the same thing that happened to them just a few months ago.  ACSD is blaming it on the lack of pay and not being able to compete with the jobs being offered in surrounding counties and the fact that the oil and gas industry is paying people more money than they can make as a jailer.  Turner asked Shannon Herklotz, Assistant Commissioner for the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, “Are we alone in this?”  He replied, “No Austin County is not alone in this there are other counties who are facing the same thing.”

Sheriff Brandes makes the final decision, Judge Carolyn Bilski pointed out.  “Ultimately it is your (Brandes’) decision when and if you send the inmates to Ft. Bend County.”  Brandes acknowledged the statement and addressed the court, “I know it is. I just wanted to make sure that you all know what is going on here.  That is why I called this special meeting.”

Since the budget was approved there was no line item in the Sheriff’s budget for this new expenditure and in the end Commissioner’s Court will have to find the money to pay for housing the inmates in Ft. Bend County.

All parties involved are working together for a solution.  Herklotz offered any help he could to get everyone up to speed in a timely manner.  District Attorney Travis Koehn offered to keep the amount of inmates sent to Austin County Jail at the bare necessity.  Commissioners tabled the decision and put it on the agenda for Monday’s regular meeting.