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Sheriff takes aim at staffing, co. jail troubles |
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Friday, 10 August 2007 |
By Jon Klusmire
Register Staff
Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze has a plan to kill a small flock of birds with a few, well-placed stones.
The sheriff’s proposals would start to address the problems the department has had in the past hiring and keeping both patrol deputies and correctional officers. In addition, a plan to create a work-release program for non-violent offenders could reduce jail costs and overcrowding issues.
Plus, the Sheriff’s Department would take over the tasks associated with the Office of Emergency Services, and also improve its ability to find grant funds and state reimbursements for mandated training programs.
Lutze and Undersheriff John Eropkin recently presented the “three-year plan” for the jail to the Board of Supervisors.
The key to the plan is to “make the jail a correctional facility that’s self-sustaining” and attracts and keeps staff through good working conditions and a career path in corrections, said Lutze.
To get started doing that, he proposed shifting existing state grants and supplemental money to pay for five more correctional officers.
The move would be “revenue neutral,” since it just shifts current funding to new sources. One deputy position currently paid with General Fund money would be funded instead with a CalMet Grant. State funds now earmarked for two vacant deputy positions would be diverted to pay for correctional officers, and the two vacant deputy slots would be eliminated.
The General Fund savings and the state funding would pay for five new correctional officers.
Once those correctional officers get trained and in the jail, five deputies currently working in the jail would be put out patrolling the streets.
“We’ve got to get more people out on the streets” patrolling, instead of having deputies spend years working as correctional officers, said Lutze.
Having a full staff in the jail will improve working conditions, and will allow for a “career ladder” in corrections that provides a clear path for promotions and raises, thus providing an incentive for correctional officers to stay on the job and advance in a true career, Lutze said.
Getting deputies out of jail duty would also become a critical part of retaining those employees, he said. Most deputies Inyo County has lost to nearby law enforcement agencies cited having to work in the jail as a top reason they left, he noted.
Getting the new correctional officers on board and shifting deputies out of the jail and back on the streets will also generate some salary savings, Lutze said. Currently, too many people are working 12-hour shifts, which not only bumps up overtime costs, but also “makes them worn out and tired,” he noted.
The county doesn’t have much choice when it comes to paying the price for staffing the jail and the dispatch center, noted Eropkin. He said that whether it’s illness, vacation or an empty position, there are times when deputies have to work in the jail, or other employees have to work the dispatch center. Eropkin pointed out those two jobs are mandatory and have to be staffed 24/7.
Currently, the Sheriff’s Department has 16 openings (out of 63 jobs) and is short several dispatchers, patrol deputies and correctional officers.
“We can’t continue to do business as usual,” Eropkin concluded.
Besides staffing levels, the other bit of new business proposed for the jail is a work-release program. The idea, Eropkin said, is to take misdemeanor offenders sentenced to less than 30 days in jail and instead of locking them up, make them pay money to work picking up trash, cleaning up parks or other tasks. Deputies would not oversee the work-release details, since the workers would be low-risk offenders who would be expected to follow instructions or face going to jail.
The preliminary plan calls for offenders to pay a $50 fee just to get into work release, and then $5 for every day they are in work release, Eropkin said. He noted that the prime candidates for such a program would be misdemeanor, non-violent offenders, those with short sentences of several days or a week, or those sentenced for civil crimes, such as not paying child support.
Having that program available would help ease jail overcrowding and lower costs because the offender wouldn’t be fed and housed in jail, Eropkin said.
To get the program started, the Sheriff’s Department would hire a new employee at the administrative analyst level. That person would oversee the work-release program, take over the chore of scheduling and planning for mandated training for officers and also make sure the county is reimbursed, if possible, for that training, Eropkin said.
In addition, the new job would include handling all the duties of the Office of Emergency Services.
A final decision on the numerous changes proposed by Lutze will be made later this month during budget hearings. However, the preliminary budget did include the money-shifting that would clear the way for hiring the five new correctional officers, additional dispatchers and the administrative analyst, if the work-release program is instituted.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 10 September 2007 )
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