MUCH OF THE AUSTIN COUNTY JAIL CLOSES DUE TO STAFFING
Officials with the Austin County Sheriff’s office say they have had to closed down much of the county jail and send prisoners to Fort Bend County due to a staffing shortage.
Sheriff Jack Brandes reported to the Austin County Commissioners that much of the staff was able to get better pay in other counties, including Washington County and they were taking the jobs.
Brandes said the newer part of the jail, with 50 of the facilities 87 beds, had to be closed.
Brandes says it takes a minimum of 16 jailers to keep the full jail in operation and 12 to operate the 27 bed older portion of the jail. The Sheriff said further that the jail is no longer taking class C misdemeanor offenders.
The crux of the problem, according to Brandes, is the low pay for jail staff and that until last week, there was no overtime pay.
He said the Austin County Jail has become a training ground for neighboring counties where the pay is higher. A jailer in Austin County earns $32,879 a year. Washington County pays roughly the same but they have been getting overtime for years.
Brandes explained to the Austin County Commissioners that the compensation plan allows the jail staff to work 84 hours every two weeks. The must then work an additional two hours before they can get overtime.
Salaries are set by the county commissioners. County Judge Carolyn Bilski said money is tight and increasing salaries could be difficult. She said she was confident they could work together for a solution but notes that there may be more than just salaries involved when you dealing ‘with people who are not in their best condition.’
Judge Bilski says they need the cream of the crop working in the county jail.
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Seems like the Sheriff should be getting some of the blame for this mess. Our Sherriff’s dept was in pretty bad shape until Sherriff Hanak took over. He’s has been instrumental in getting higher pay for his employees and in making major changes.
I just wonder how much money Fort Bend County is making off of Austin County’s stupidity. It’s got to be costing tax-payers a heck of a lot more to pay to ship our inmates off so someone else can take care of them. And I know that is a bill that has to be paid. Wake up people! If you don’t pay your workers a salary that is competitive, your workers will leave and go somewhere they get paid. DUH! Then you have to take the time and money for training new people, and they will just leave again for the same reasons.
Unfortunately I am a tax-payer in Austin County, so I guess I’m paying for this mess. Thank God Bilski is finally leaving at the end of the year. Maybe our new judge will begine to fix this system that is so beyond broken. And maybe he can take the padding out of some other Austin County agency’s budgets so money can actually be used for salaries and people can actually get paid a fair and competitive wage, AND overtime if they choose to put in the time to work more than 40 hours per week.