By C1 Staff
HARRISON COUNTY, Texas — Female inmates at the Harrison County Jail are claiming that staff members aren’t allowing them to work due to their gender.
Sheriff Tom McCool says the women don’t work because he doesn’t have enough staff to supervise the inmates, reports Marshall News Messenger.
But eight inmates have filed a complaint, stating that the jail isn’t in compliance with DOJ regulations against discrimination.
In a letter, they claimed that the jail’s handbook listed jobs available to inmates, but when they asked to be assigned to the jobs, they were denied. They claim that this was due to their gender.
“We have filed grievance statements according to the handbook grievance procedure with no response or action taken,” they said. “As females, this is a violation of our civil rights, and so we are addressing this matter with the media and the citizens of Harrison County for help, for us to be able to seek for our voices to be heard.”
According to the inmates, a female inmate can qualify for a trustee position and receive good time credit at equal rights as males.
They suggested that a tank be created where female trustees could be moved and housed and offered the same benefits as male trustees.
McCool stated that inmates can receive two-for-one credit on their sentence for good behavior, and believes the female inmates are making a fuss now because they mistakenly believe they will receive three-for-one credit for good time if an inmate is involved in a work program.
Though there is such a provision, it is not employed at the Harrison County Jail, McCool continued.
“We don’t have enough females to handle all the trustee work programs that we have here in the jail, and of course, most of our females could not perform the function that some of the males perform, so we choose to make inmate workers from the male population,” the sheriff explained, noting that the males perform jobs that require heavy lifting, something he doesn’t believe the females would be able to do physically.
“This is not a discrimination against anyone.”
McCool said he has tried to come up with other ways staff could provide working opportunities for the female inmates, but current staffing levels make it unfeasible at this time.
“We really would like to have some females performing some of those functions. It gives them an opportunity to get out of the cell and make their lives just a little more tolerable, and I understand that, but we just don’t have the manpower to do that, so we stick with one sex at all times.”