BEXAR COUNTY, Texas — The Bexar County Sheriff's Office is requesting the Commissioner's Court approve more than 96,000 hours of mandatory overtime for staff.
In county documents, BCSO said 96,170 mandatory overtime hours required were to cover the period from May 31, 2021 to September 30, 2021. The documents said it would be an estimated cost of about $3.9 million for that time period.
This comes after BCSO requested 64,251 hours of mandatory overtime hours for the period of March 13 to June 11. The sheriff's office said that funding was spent due to an increase in the use of isolation units. The documents say the average use of isolation units is eight, but during that time period, it reached an actual high of 35 isolation units.
BCSO also said the Adult Detention Center was experiencing increases in population as well as increases in inmates requiring admission and/or transportation to the hospital. Projections show the current jail population will continue to increase over the remaining year.
You can see the full request for funding below:
The documents say the Adult Detention Center has 190 job vacancies, as of June 17. BCSO said it was taking steps to recruit for those jobs including offering a 40-hour course with for candidates that will actually allow them to take on roles with in the jail. The roles they perform in the course will help alleviate the mandatory overtime hours. Classes will be held starting July 26, August 23, and September 27 with about 25 potential recruit jailers in each class.
