By Denise Blaz
Abilene Reporter-News
HOUSTON, Texas — The number of disciplinary actions involving Taylor County Jail employees is low, according to Taylor County Sheriff Les Bruce, especially compared with cities with higher populations such as Houston.
A review of records published by the Houston Chronicle last month found instances of physical abuse and serious errors at the Harris County Jail. A Houston jail sergeant once reportedly slugged an inmate. Jail workers have had sex with inmates, mistakenly released dangerous inmates and once left their post to engage in a 90-minute domino game.
Problems at the Taylor County Jail seem tame by comparison.
In three years, the Taylor County Jail has reprimanded 28 of its 135 employees, some of whom are civilians.
No reprimands have led to terminations, according to a review of the jail’s disciplinary records, obtained from an open-records request by the Reporter-News.
Two officers have been reprimanded for making “major booking errors.” One officer was given a letter of counseling September 2010 after being found surfing the Internet and being warned of the misconduct multiple times.
Others were reprimanded for sleeping on the job, and some were reprimanded in the wake of escapes by two inmates.
“There are going to be personnel issues. We have human behavior,” said Sheriff Les Bruce, about his jail employees. “We know that when you couple expert personnel with the criminal element.”
Bruce said his department constantly has to deal with both sides of the fence. Whenever a jail worker carries out alleged misconduct, a letter of counseling is given, followed by a letter of repri
mand if the situation isn’t corrected, he said.
Termination is the last resort is a worker doesn’t correct his or her mistakes, Bruce said.
No instances of physical abuse at the Taylor County Jail have been documented. One jail officer has gotten in trouble for at least five instances of some degree of neglect and verbal abuse, records show.
In February 2011, the officer was given a letter of counseling after five incidents were documented within a nine-month period.
In one instance, the officer failed to check on a noise coming from a cell block. The noise was an inmate banging his head on walls and doors, according to a letter that said the inmate’s head was bleeding.
Two months later, the same officer was reported to have yelled at an entire cell block of inmates who were threatening to riot if nothing was done about an air-conditioning unit that was shut down. The reported instance resulted in inmates being aggressive toward staff.
Other records of employee reprimands involve a worker making “several medication errors on numerous times.”
An officer was given a counseling letter November 2009 after reportedly releasing an inmate with three serious charges a month ahead of schedule. The inmate later turned himself in at the jail lobby to serve out his time, custody records show.
Repeat tardiness among workers also is documented in the reprimands — a violation policy the jail cannot afford because of a mandated jailer-to-inmate ratio, Bruce said.
“It’s very important to have those jailers there to receive briefing notes during shift changes,” he said. “They need to know what has been going on in that facility since they left. It is firm. We have sergeants out there that know their job and can’t have a person out there that thinks they’re just going to skate by. We can’t afford that at all.”
Copyright 2012 The E.W. Scripps Company
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