‘Come get your people’: Bexar County sheriff’s massive overtime bill highlights staffing shortage

Bexar County has already spent about $24 million in overtime pay in the past four years, and about $10 million in 2019, an issue stemming from the jail’s high turnover rate with detention center officers.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Trish DeBerry, a vocal proponent of the jail staffing needs, says she received multiple letters from officers that quit or retired. She says they cited inhumane conditions regarding working mandatory overtime at the jail and lack of respect from supervisors. 

Salazar cites the jails large population, about 4,200 inmates at any given time, fueling the need for MOT. The number of inmates is only compounded by Texas placing 146 parole violators in the jail. 

Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert wants the county to look at the cost of moving those 146 inmates. Salazar notes that the state is opening prison in Dilley to take undocumented immigrants. 

“If you’re opening prisons, come get your 146 people,” Salazar said during a Commissioners Court meeting on July 13.

On top of also holding inmates with mental health issues, the jail also sends 10 to 12 detention officers a shift to University Hospital to tend to inmates with chronic illnesses. 

DeBerry recommended asking the county manager to bring an outside consultant proposal to commissioner’s court for approval. Salazar agreed with an outside perspective coming in to assess jail needs. 

But, Salazar also follows in the footsteps of Harris County in hiring a former Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspector as a jail administrator. He hired former Texas Commission on Jail Standards inspector, Jennifer Schumake, as the Bexar County jail administrator. 

Salazar described her as the “bane of our existence” when she was a jail inspector, scrutinizing every “nook and cranny” of the jail. Schumake said she is currently working with other county jails to see what is being done to address similar issues.