SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar says he and his team are making changes at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center Facility after an inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards found a variety of issues.
Following that inspection is when Salazar said he made the decision to ask two members of his command staff to resign.
"Quite frankly, we were finding evidence of deliberate indifference to that jail inspection," Salazar said. "We found out there were folks pretty high up in the organization that knew there were issues. The metaphor I used is people were satisfied with us making a C, not knowing it would end up being an F.
"And I’m not OK with that. We need to shoot for an A+ on every last inspection, and I’m not going to stand for any less. The taxpayers of Bexar County deserve more than that, our staff deserves better than that and the inmates we’re in charge of keeping in custody deserve better than that."
Now, he has promoted Captain Avery Walker to the position of jail administrator. Walker served BCSO for 30 years before working as acting jail administrator prior to this deputy chief promotion. Salazar says he is confident in Walker's ability to lead the charge on jail reform.
Still, the sheriff says he is open to future personnel changes throughout his command staff if he finds they need to be made.
"With any command staff, it’s a living breathing thing that needs to evolve with the agency," Salazar said. "It needs to evolve with current events, and that’s why I’m given leeway with those 10 exempt positions. Those folks serve at the will of the sheriff. I would hope everybody does what they need to do and is able to hope the agency move forward and accomplish their goals.
"You don’t take those likely and you don’t do them just on the whim. You have to think them through. Those were thought through on the ones we did yesterday and although it’s an unfortunate eventuality you have to make those changes, we’re not ruling out others in the future for sure."
Salazar says his office has not yet received the final, official jail inspection report but is already working to fix the problems he knows exist.