AUSTIN COUNTY INMATES SENT TO FORT BEND COUNTY

  

Inmates from the Austin County Jail will be heading back to the Fort Bend County Jail in the near future.

Again citing staffing concerns, Austin County Sheriff Jack Brandes will be housing inmates out of county for several months.

Brandes told the Austin County Commissioners that he had recently lost two officers, one due to a knee injury and one who took another job in the oilfield.

Brandes also told the commissioners that the jail is faced with having to ship inmates back to Ft. Bend County in order to get jailers trained, and claimed that the jail is unsafe, so getting the jailers trained as quickly as possible is necessary so that he can have the inmates sent back.

There are currently 11 jailers on staff at the jail, plus Wade Bagerly, who typically runs the work crew, brings that number to 12. Twelve jailers is enough to fill the shifts as long as no one takes a day off, which also means no training for the new employees of the jail.

Five of the eleven jailers have been on the job for less than two months. These five are working on temporary licenses, but have not yet received any training. They have one year from the date of hire to get the training required to be fully licensed.

Brandes stated that he would bring a written plan based on housing the inmates out of county for 60 days, and the Austin county auditor Betty Jez stated that it would be a “pay as you go” and that they would find the money.