HOUSTON – Millions of tax dollars are being spent on overtime for a single area of county government: the jail.
Channel 2 Investigates obtained records showing overtime costs at the jail started rising in 2015.
“How did the spending get so bad at the jail?” Channel 2 Investigator Robert Arnold asked Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
“Well, it was a combination of things,” Gonzalez said. “It's definitely a concern for me. I would definitely rather be using those dollars instead of just maintaining a jail bureaucracy.”
KPRC sat down with Gonzalez and Maj. John Martin, head of the Justice Housing Bureau, to find out what was driving the ballooning costs and the steps the new administration is taking to curb the spending.
Sheriff’s Office records show in January 2014, $412,326 was spent on overtime at the jail. In January of this year, overtime spending was up to $1,959,802.
To put that last figure in perspective, the money spent on overtime at the jail in January is equal to the base salary of more than 50 entry-level deputies.
Gonzalez took office at the beginning of the year and inherited this problem. He said Harris County taxpayers are not being slighted in others areas of law enforcement because of jail overtime, but admits that money could be used elsewhere.
“We're a growing county and there's a big strain on resources and our services, so does it put a strain, absolutely. I wish we could be doing more things,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said one of the biggest contributors to overtime was chronic understaffing at the jail.
The jail was losing more detention officers than it was hiring.
Overtime became mandatory to make sure there were enough people to handle a jail with an average daily population of more than 8,700 inmates.
“We have detention officers that are working double shifts two, three maybe sometimes four days a week and that's not sustainable,” Martin said.
Martin said high overtime led to high burnout rates, and employees looking for better advancement opportunities in other departments.
“We were basically treading water, if not losing ground, on our hiring,” Martin said.
Gonzalez made these problems a priority when he took office, and as a result, overtime costs dropped nearly in half from January to May.
One step was ramping up hiring of detention officers. Martin says since Jan. 1, the Sheriff's Office hired 126 detention officers and only lost 59. Gonzalez also expanded a modified sheriff’s academy where detention officers, who are licensed peace officers, can graduate to become detention deputies. This move gives employees the chance to one day climb the ranks outside the jail and on the streets as fully sworn deputies.
“A lot of little things (are being done) to positively impact attrition,” Martin said.
Officials with the Harris County Budget Management Office said another step toward improving efficiency came in the form of a $700,000 scheduling software package. Sheriff’s officials said the software has been installed and should be up and running for detentions by the end of summer.
Check out our interactive infograph about overtime costs for the last three years:
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