ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — Ector County has taken another step forward with their jail staffing that can save millions for taxpayers.
The jail has been forced to send inmates to neighboring counties due to a lack of jailers, but that could all be changing.
It’s been a years-long problem for Ector County and its taxpayers.
“We are short a significant amount of jailers out at the jail," said Dustin Fawcett, Ector County judge. "It costs 300-to-400% more to send inmates out of Ector County than to house them in Ector County.”
Fawcett said it's an issue that has been addressed before.
“In last year’s budget we increased the baseline salary of jailers to $60,000, and then now we’ve done some increased recruitment efforts," Fawcett said. "So, we have a long list of applicants.”
While a long list of applicants helps, it does not necessarily solve the problem.
“The issue that we were trying to solve is we get all these applicants, we have about 35 applicants right now that are waiting – if you’re waiting for a job then you don’t have a month to wait and know whether or not you’re hired, especially out here in a very attractive job market you’re going to go take a job," Fawcett said. "So we’re losing a lot of very good applicants due to the amount of time that it takes to get TCOLE certified and jail certified and all these other things.
That issue is now rivaled by a new and innovative approach.
“What this redshirt program does is as soon as they apply and we do some really preliminary background checks, we hire them, we give them literally a red shirt and then they are in a probationary period until we receive all of the background checks and all of the other things that usually take about a month," Fawcett said. "And so, they are already employed.”
Expediting hiring needs in the jail will also open the door for current jailers to serve elsewhere.
“What this ultimately is going to do is this is the first step in kind of our master plan that we’ve talked about – our five-year master plan – of having our jail entirely staffed, all of our inmates back so saving taxpayer dollars, then also having our sheriff’s deputy shifts out there on the streets – our streets division – fully staffed as well," Fawcett said.
A benefit for law enforcement, Ector County and the wallets of thousands.