County leaders dig into jail woes
Staffing, repairs among problems
PINE BLUFF — The Jefferson County sheriff told Quorum Court members this week that the jail has security issues that need to be addressed.
Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. said a contractor had provided him with an estimate of about $100,000 to fix the problems, which range from ceiling damage in various jail “pods” to plumbing issues and other structural damage caused by inmates that could allow prisoners access to the outside of the jail.
Another problem, Woods said, is structural deficiencies that date from when the jail was built. Construction on the 316-bed lockup, begun in 2005 and completed in 2007, followed the passage of two sales and use taxes in 2003 to pay for the construction and operation of the jail.
“Once they build it and button it up, you don’t really know what’s under it until [the inmates] start testing the vulnerabilities,” he said.
But County Judge Gerald Robinson, who served as sheriff from January 2007 until December 2018, said the recent escapes of two federal detainees had less to do with building problems and more to do with staffing.
“The jail was designed for each pod to be manned,” Robinson said. “And nor
mally, with each pod being manned, you won’t have that type of activity, but not being able to fully staff and have those people in there, well, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”
On Wednesday, Robinson reiterated that the security concerns that Woods laid out to justices of the peace Tuesday night had less to do with structural deficiencies than with human error.
“To bring up those incidents and say jail construction is the problem or lack of money is the problem, let’s be real,” Robinson said. “What happened was strictly human error, strictly an operational error. It had nothing to do with any structural integrity of the jail.”
Robinson said that even with the possibility of some structural deficiencies, when the jail is staffed as intended, the inmates have no chance to create problems.
“It is a problem, though, when you don’t have personnel,” he said. “But that’s not for the lack of trying to hire good personnel. It is the quality of the workforce that we have that’s been some of the issue, but for the most part, we never had a major issue of anyone escaping from the jail before now.”
The issue came to the attention of county officials with the escapes from the county lockup of two federal inmates at the end of July. Officials have said they believe that the two men — Wesley Gullett, 30, and Christopher Sanderson, 34, — escaped from the W.C. “Dub” Brassell Adult Detention Center between 8:30 p.m. on July 29 and 4:30 a.m. July 30.
Woods’ remarks Tuesday night came one day after his office issued a news release that said two unnamed jail officials — a supervisor and a deputy — were fired over the recent escapes.
He has not identified the two employees, saying both women have a 10-day period to appeal their terminations.
One of the two fired jailers was a supervisory-level employee who had been with the jail since January 2014, earning $34,940 annually, according to the sheriff’s office. The other had been employed at the jail since April 2013, earning an annual salary of $31,326.
Woods provided handouts to the justices of the peace Tuesday night illustrated with photographs various areas of the jail that present security concerns. He said not only are there areas that could be exploited by inmates trying to get out of the jail, but other areas present ways for contraband to be introduced into the lockup.
“We confiscated 12 cellphones just this morning,” Woods said Tuesday night.
Woods acknowledged that staffing is a big concern. He said the jail was designed to be staffed by a minimum of one jailer in each of the 10 pods around the clock. According to jail staffing records obtained from the sheriff’s office, the jail has 25 slots for guards, down from 48 slots in 2012, but only 21 of those slots are filled. Entry-level pay for a guard is $23,000 a year, which is what the nine guards currently receive.
The two highest-paid guards in the lockup each receive $31,326 annually.
“We’re not able to staff it and put an individual jailer in each pod 24 hours a day, seven days week, so what does that mean?” Woods asked. “They’ve got more time when they are unsupervised directly to test the vulnerabilities of the building.”
Woods said low pay and stressful working conditions lead to high turnover among jail personnel, which makes it impossible for him to keep the facility fully staffed. That in turn makes it difficult to provide adequate supervision of inmates, he said.
“For the time we spend identifying and addressing vulnerabilities within the security of our jail, detainees have 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and up to 365 days a year to find ways to exploit them. It’s like playing a game of chess or cat and mouse,” Woods said.
Ted Harden, chairman of the Quorum Court’s Finance Committee, said Wednesday that it is not likely the county will be able to pay for any jail repairs in the near future.
“We’ll be starting the process of the 2020 budget next month, and we’ll be looking at items we can cut out,” Harden said. “We’re going to be looking at all kinds of avenues where we can cut and get a better grip on everything. But, do we have the money right now? I would say, probably not.”