Historical & Current Jail Staffing and Budgetary Concerns

The above table depicts the rise in inmates between January 3, 2017 and January 16, 2024 without consideration of adding a relief factor in the Smith County Jail employee pool. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards MANDATES a 1 Detention Officer to 48 Inmate ratio. As one can see in the chart above, as the number of inmates rises, the number of jail employee openings rises. We attribute the rise in the employee vacancies to not having a relief factor in the Smith County. Employees are frequently requiresd to work mandatory overtime to meet the Jail Commission's mandated detention officer to inmate ratio. Again, this can be directly attributed to the absence of a Detention Officer relief factor.