TYLER, Texas — After recent reports show the Smith County Jail was cited for not complying with several state jail standards, Sheriff Larry Smith said Friday a plan has been put in place to improve leadership and combat future citations.
Some of the infractions listed in the Texas Commission on Jail Standards reports include placing inmates in holding cells for more than 48 hours, not maintaining the required ratio of jailers to inmates and not giving inmates the chance to shower within a proper time frame.
Smith said upon reviewing the jail leadership, he hired Keith January, a warden from the Texas Department of Corrections, to serve as the Smith County Jail chief deputy.
“I hired him, not for his know-how in the jail. I know that will come and has already come because it’s a lot of the same at TDC - managing people, both inmates and personnel,” Smith said. “I hired him strictly because of what I saw in his leadership abilities and he's making good changes.”
Smith said the sheriff’s office was also able to bring January’s assistant warden from TDC and hire three new lieutenants within the last three months. He added the changes have been a rebuilding process that’s not going to happen overnight.
“I knew when we started, it's not going to happen overnight. But things are falling in place. Chief January came in at two o'clock in the morning. And he just left a few minutes ago (at nearly 2 p.m.) to get around and see all the different shifts to the jail,” Smith said.
The sheriff’s office has also appointed a sergeant to oversee compliance issues regularly. Smith said the sergeant is doing a “phenomenal” job by performing mock inspections to find any possible deficiencies within the jail.
“If we don't keep our eye on what we're doing in these days, we're automatically out of compliance,” Smith said.
He added he’s looking into asking a couple of neighboring sheriffs if they would be willing to allow Smith County to borrow a couple of their key personnel to perform jail inspections.
After implementing these measures, Smith said the proper documentation has been sent off to the jail commission inspectors for review.
JAIL CITATIONS
Both a report in February and March mentioned that inmates had been held in the holding cells for over 48 hours.
Smith said jailers didn't have a place to put the inmates because of such an increase in the population. He recalled writing letters to the courts in an effort to alleviate the strain on the jail by reducing the inmate population.
"I got no movement, there was very little movement. But I don't run the courts. And I don't have any authority there. And I can see both sides of that. I can see the judges' side and I want somebody to see our side over here," Smith said. "You know, we feel helpless here."
To resolve the issue, Smith reached out to friend in law enforcement who had a private jail facility to house inmates (starting with those who are nearly ready to be transferred to prison after a conviction).
Documents also showed that the jail staff did not meet the required one jailer per 48 inmates multiple times between March 1 and 31 at both the central jail in downtown Tyler and the north jail facility, according to the TCJS report.
Some of the non-compliance could be partly due to the jail being short-staffed as officers have been working lengthy shifts and longtime employees have left the jail, Smith said.
"Quite frankly, our employees have been working so long, short staffed. Having to give up one of their free days, a Saturday or Sunday when they have a three day weekend on 12 hour shifts, that's a pretty hard pill to swallow. And that works on them over a period of time," Smith said. "Since 2014, we have hired 600 people (or so) for the jail. And so we have about 185, 190 in the jail. So that tells you how many people have come and gone from Smith County Jail, employee-wise."
During a visit from March 22 to 24, an inspector determined that inmates in holding cells on a suicide watch did not receive the opportunity to shower at least every other day or more often if possible.
“Multiple inmates were found to be held in holding cells on suicide watch anywhere from five to 10 days without the opportunity to shower,” the inspector wrote in the report.
Smith said he believes the showering could have been a result of poor record keeping.
"If you don't have it written down on paper, it didn't happen," Smith said.
An official noted that Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records show a detention officer’s temporary jailers license expired on Dec. 20, 2021; however, that officer continued to work without a valid TCOLE license from Dec. 20 2021 until Feb. 9 this year, according to the report.
It was also determined that inmates who were in the violent cell at the Smith County Jail were not reviewed every 24 hours to determine if the inmate needed to remain in the violent cell.
Under TCJS guidelines, jailers must perform checks every 15 minutes at least to assess restraints used on the inmate who has been placed in a violent cell. An inspector observed these observations were exceeded by one to 10 minutes on multiple occasions.
Smith said this citation was a result of a recent change to the TCJS guidelines, noting the previous guidance stated the checks must be done at least every 20 minutes.
“So we were out of compliance there because we failed to implement that, all of that has since been fixed,” he said.
The jail was cited last year as well for six issues, such as not giving inmates a change of clothes for at least a week, in June.
Reports in February, March and last June are still on the TCJS website. Once jails are deemed compliant again, the inspection reports are removed from the website.
