The Hockley County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) recently announced the Hockley County Jail passed its annual jail inspection.
HCSO Jail Administrator, Captain Taylor Inscore explained what goes into inspections and the purpose they serve.
“The reason for the jail inspections is to make sure that the inmates have a safe, sanitary and cared for experience while they're here,” explained Inscore. “It is ensuring they're getting the health care that they need; they're living in a sanitary location; they're getting their needs met and their rights are being still observed.”
While an inmate might not have the right to freedom, they may have other rights that jail staff still have to maintain for them. With the jail inspections it makes sure that the jail is complying with the state law as far as the minimum standards.
When the jail inspectors make the trip to the facility they look at several key areas. This past inspection was a Limited Compliance Review. It revolved around checking the life safety equipment, fire system, generator for a power outage.
“The things that were covered in this inspection were items that are not thought of on a day-to-day basis,” said Inscore. “However, these things are huge if an emergency were to take place.”
Other inspections include looking at sanitation, making sure that their facility is up and working order.
As one of the few states that has a commission on jail standards, having a clear set of rules and regulations allows for a smooth operational experience.
“To have a uniform standard across the state is huge because now there is a clear set of rules for what you can and what you can't do,” said Inscore. “The state brings in experts, a doctor and sheriff’s all on this commission and they come up with the best ways to supervise inmates, keep them healthy, safe and ready for court.”
Inscore added that maintaining those efforts is the utmost priority because if the job is done well then it pays off in the long run.
“You have less issues with the inmates; you have less grievances; you have less uses of force and you have less of a whole lot of things because you're maintaining those high standards,” explained Inscore. “It's really keen to play to those standards.”
As of Thursday morning, the inmate count was at 53 and the out of county inmate count was at zero. The jail layout does accommodate a max capacity of 64.
“We're still below capacity so hopefully we can kind of keep it in that range, but the numbers are still sitting well,” said Inscore. “We are above the mandated issue for these jail standards. You have to have one jailer for every 48 inmates, and we have enough jailers on every shift for up to 96.”
With staffing nearly full on the jail side, Inscore says morale has improved dramatically.
“When people are not having to do as much overtime then we can focus on other things like equipping these guys or how to train them better,” said Inscore. “That opens up the door to a lot of new opportunities for us with the count being down and the employee’s numbers being high.
With nearly $500,000 having to be budgeted to cover the costs of inmate out-of-housing during the last budget cycle, Inscore added that the low numbers inhouse and zero inmates in out-ofhousing is currently saving taxpayers a substantial amount of money.
Looking at the upcoming budget for the jail expenses, discussions to cut down the amount of money allocated to the out-of-housing line item are being had.
Inscore noted that the result of low numbers is through the cooperation between the HCSO 286th District Attorney’s Office and all levels of the Hockley County Courthouse.
“Everybody has been working very hard on this and they have been doing a great job,” said Inscore.