COLUMN: Managing the County Jail and personnel

Submitted photo.

Ellis County Sheriff Johnny Brown.

Operating a county jail is a balancing act between meeting the required Texas Jail Commission standards on one hand while working within the restraints of a county jail’s budget on the other. The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office/Wayne McCollum Detention Center is no exception. The TJC requires a jailer-to-inmate ratio of 1:48 while our county jail budget approved by the County Commissioners Court provides funding for 119 detention staff. The bottom line is, whatever the detention center’s inmate population is on any given day, we have to have the personnel on hand to meet the state of Texas’ mandated ratio.

It’s a simple fact that hiring a detention officer isn’t an overnight process. For one, these aren’t easy positions to fill because not everyone wants to be a jailer nor does everyone have what it takes to be one. Beginning in 2009, we also restructured our hiring practices and increased our standards. Since then, all applicants must pass physical agility, written, observation and reporting tests, and undergo a rigorous background investigation. We’ve found that screening better on the front end has helped lessen the attrition rate.

Still, vacancies do come up on occasion or we have personnel who get sick or have a family emergency and need to be off work. To ensure we meet the state-mandated ratio on a daily basis, we’ll call other personnel back in, but that results in comp time that ultimately has to be dealt with through additional scheduling efforts. Sometimes, despite our best efforts at staffing and scheduling, the jail population itself swells to where we have to adjust on its end of the equation – and, at this time, that means limiting the number of class C misdemeanor inmates brought in by area agencies.

As an example, the city of Waxahachie does not have its own jail facility and has a contract with the county to take the class C inmates arrested by its officers. The county also accepts on a fee-per-inmate basis the class C arrests from the smaller cities. (The cities of Ennis, Midlothian and Red Oak have their own jail facilities to handle their respective class C arrests.) Here at Wayne McCollum, we saw the jail population peak several months ago above what we could handle with our existing staffing level – and we had to notify Waxahachie and the smaller cities that we were at capacity and unable to accept any of their class C arrests. (With class C misdemeanor offenses, law enforcement does have the option of making an arrest or issuing a citation in lieu of that arrest.)

Putting a temporary hold on that contract with Waxahachie allowed us to handle all of the inmates we are required by law to accept as a county facility, which includes all class B and above misdemeanors, felony arrests, probation and parole violators, etc. and keep our state-mandated ratio in line. We’d had several vacancies occur and we worked to get our applicants through the hiring process and initial training. Once our staffing numbers went back up, we were able to lift that hold and began accepting class C misdemeanor arrests again.

We hire the best people possible to serve in our jail and we hold them to a high standard. Many of them have been with us for years serving our community in this capacity. It should come as no surprise that we’re proud of our detention officers for the job they do. Their level of excellence shows in the fact that we’ve passed every jail inspection that’s come our way. And, so you know, those are always surprise inspections that can and do occur at any time.

If you think you’d like to join our team, you can find the application on the Ellis County website at www.co.ellis.tx.us. Click on Jobs, then click on Download Application, or you can download one at www.elliscountysheriff.com, where you click on Employment and then choose Detention Officer.

Applications are due by noon the first Friday of each month for Detention Officer Testing, which is held the third Friday of each month. The detention officer position offers a good work schedule and some great benefits including medical, dental and eye insurance along with a competitive salary. Uniforms are provided and employees get 96 hours of vacation after the first year. You must be at least 19 years old to apply.

All applications must be completed on a computer and printed out. Handwritten applications are not accepted. Submit your completed application to Ellis County Human Resources, which is located in the basement of the old courthouse at 101 W. Main St., Suite B-103, Waxahachie, TX 75165.

As always, the Sheriff’s Office asks that you keep our military and service personnel in our thoughts and prayers. We enjoy all of our rights and freedoms because of their service and safekeeping of our great nation. Y’all have a Blessed Week from your Sheriff’s Office.

Johnny Brown has served as Sheriff of Ellis County since Jan. 1, 2009, and is a graduate of the National Sheriff’s Institute. He has been in law enforcement for more than 20 years and holds a Master’s Peace Officer’s Certificate with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.