SAN ANTONIO – When four inmates at the Bexar County Jail committed suicide in a matter of weeks this summer, it got the attention of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Inspectors performed an unannounced visit, which resulted in no violations of minimum standards and found no wrongdoing by any of the detention officers in charge when the inmates died.
In the wake of those deaths, some detention officers began reaching out to the KSAT-12 Defenders to share concerns they had about how the jail is being operated.
The current and former officers spoke on the condition that their identities would be protected. They shared stories of cutting corners on required inmate checks, allegations of falsifying logbooks, complaints about overtime and the general treatment of officers.
The jailers said the problems are driven by a manpower shortage, which they blame on the administration's leadership.
"I've never seen so many officers quit within three or four years in one administration," a veteran officer told the Defenders. "Officers are quitting left and right, getting tired of that place due to the fact that morale is so low."
According to jail administrators, 180 officers have either resigned, retired or have been terminated in the past year, while the agency hired 198 officers.
Deputy Chief Henry Reyes, the assistant jail administrator, said the jail currently has 80 vacancies, but since some housing units are closed, they are actually only short by 40 officers.
The veteran officer told the Defenders that the staff shortages are forcing other officers to fill the gaps by working overtime, making it difficult to do their jobs.
Depending where an officer is assigned, he or she is required to do rounds to check on inmates, every 55 minutes for general population, every 30 minutes for higher-risk inmates and every 15 minutes for those on suicide watch.
For years, those rounds would be logged manually by an officer into a book. In the past year, the jail began adding a new system that digitally tracks when officers do their rounds, which is meant to cut down on mistakes and keep better records.
Officers have a small device that looks like a flashlight that they must touch to a sensor on the wall. The device beeps and starts a timer. In some units, the officer must touch a sensor next to each cell. In other units, there are only four sensors.
Officers are supposed to wait for relief from another officer to carry out their rounds, but because of the short staffing, those officers don't always show up on time.
"When you try to do your check and the officer is not available, you have to go out there on your own and do the check. And a lot of times, they're like, ‘Go ahead and do the check,’” the jailer said. "The officer will show up and write in the book when he gets there, so you're by yourself doing your round when, clearly, it violates policy if you step out of the office by yourself."
The officer said not completing the required check on time can result in officers being disciplined, which can affect their ability to promote through the ranks or transfer to patrol jobs. To avoid that, some officers are more concerned with making sure the round is completed on time than actually checking on the inmates.
The officer said inmates are not being checked properly because he and other officers are cheating the digital tracking system.
"When you're doing your rounds, sometimes when you're running late, you cut through the day room to get to the next one, or you rush upstairs to just hit it so you won't be late, so you won't get written up. A lot of officers just bypass everything to avoid a write-up," the officer said.
The officer’s allegations were backed up by a former officer who resigned this year after working several years in the jail.
"It's almost impossible (to complete the checks). You would be skipping. You would be doing it at random. And how can you really say you checked everyone on every single shift? That's why inmates are being missed," the second jailer said. "They will tap, run to the other end and tap it again without checking on the inmates. It's done electronically on time. But is it done in real time? No, it's not. They're not being checked."
The former jailer said while inmates should be checked by officers every hour, it was her experience that some were rarely checked.
"I would say within eight hours, probably once, maybe twice if they're lucky," the former jailer said. "They're so short-staffed that there's no way they can keep up safely."
While the jail continues to upgrade to the digital round tracker system, the old paper logs are still being used in some living units. The officers allege the staff shortages also result in those logs being falsified.
"Officers usually will skip a space and wait for the officer to come back and relieve them," the veteran officer said. "Even though it's been past the 10-minute mark, they're out doing their rounds and the officer comes back and lies on the book and says they were there 10 minutes ago when they just showed up."
The Defenders took the officers’ concerns and allegations to Deputy Chief Henry Reyes, with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. Reyes said the behavior described by the officers is not condoned by him.
"That practice is not permitted. It is not supported by us. If they are doing that, they're taking it upon themselves. Those are the kinds of concerns they need to be raising," Reyes said. "I absolutely want to hear those complaints. Officers don't have to be afraid of retaliation for bringing forth ideas or being innovative. We want that. When an officer brings forward a complaint or concern, that maybe there's too much work, we take a step back, and we look at (what) we're demanding of that position."
Reyes said he's never heard the allegations of cutting corners or any concerns from officers who say they can't get their jobs done due to staff shortages. He said if they don't feel comfortable bringing those concerns to him, there are other systems in place for them to raise their issues.
"They can contact a sergeant, who will make sure someone gets there. If staff is not available, then they can move it up the chain of command," Reyes said. "Each shift has captains and lieutenants on duty and sergeants whose responsibility it is to address the concerns of the officers immediately, and that's what we trust they're doing."
Reyes was surprised to hear allegations that officers have found a way to cheat the digital round tracking system and questioned why they would even do that.
"They're already there. There's really no excuse not to look inside the cell and see. What we require is them to see a living, breathing body," Reyes said. "Unless they can hack a computer and get in there, I don't see how they're cheating the system."
Officers said they have raised concerns to their supervisors, but they are often ignored. Current and former detention officers also complained to the Defenders about frequent overtime shifts. Some said it's not uncommon to find out they have to work overtime while in the middle of a shift.
"Sometimes you're stuck in a unit and they call and they say, 'We got no relief for you, you got to stay there another eight hours,' or they send you to a different unit, where it's so busy that you're so tired, and they expect you to run the unit like you are just fresh out of bed when you're so tired from the eight hours you did before," the current officer said. "Officers don't really respond as well when they're doing overtime because once you hit the fifth, sixth hour of your second eight hours, your body is just giving up on you and you're lacking in doing checks. And you just don't care anymore, because you just want to go home."
Reyes said overtime is unavoidable, but they do have a schedule in place that is often put out weeks in advance to let officers know when they will be required to work overtime. He said they try to limit officers to just eight hours of overtime per week, but sometimes it's not possible. He also said they try to avoid keeping officers in the same spot for 16 hours.
"We try to get them relieved as soon as possible. Sometimes it could be one or two hours into their overtime shift, and sometimes they have to work the full eight. As public servants, we know that whether we're working in the streets or we're working in the jail or we're firefighters or EMS, that what we signed up for is to come to duty whenever it's required," Reyes said. "Is it a perfect system? No, it's not a perfect system. It has room for improvement, and we manage it on a daily basis."
Reyes said the issues being raised are not unique to Bexar County.
"Staff shortages in jails is a national problem," Reyes said. "You can go to any jail across the United States, and they're suffering from the same issues."
Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in Austin, has more than 28 years of experience working with state and local corrections officials. She agrees that the issues raised by the detention officers are not unique to Bexar County.
"There's certainly problems that are evident throughout the country of staff falsifying records or not doing the checks they're supposed to be doing. It's not a unique problem, but it's a serious problem. And that goes to the cultural issue, whether or not that behavior is condoned in some way," Deitch said. "The real issue here is technology can be a big help in figuring out whether staff are doing their checks, but it can also be a hindrance because the goal is not touching the stick to the sensor, it's engaging with the inmate and checking on him and really having some kind of sense of whether this person is OK. When we start valuing the technological success above that engagement, that's when we're having a real problem."
Deitch also had concerns about the amount overtime detention officers are working in jails.
"Overtime is sometimes inevitable, but you certainly don't want to start seeing that become the norm. It's not appropriate from either a personnel standpoint or a from a security standpoint," Deitch said. "When people are working that long of a shift, they are not at their best in terms of identifying security problems or in terms of being able to engage properly with the inmates. So it leads to problems within operations of the jail when you rely on staff to work that kind of overtime."
While Deitch said the Texas Commission on Jail Standards does a good job monitoring jails to make sure they are following minimum standards, she believes the state should create a mechanism for both inmates and jail staff to raise their concerns outside of their agency.
"I think that what we really need is some form of independent ombudsman who could go in and talk to inmates and write reports about what they're finding in the facility and try to address the concerns of inmates and staff," Deitch said.
Reyes said he's always open to improving the operations of the jail, and he believes they can do a better job of retaining officers.
"The only way we can do that is recruiting the right people and creating a culture and supporting a culture that lets people know this isn't just a job, this is a career," Reyes said. "We want people to stay here, five, 10, 15, 20 years."
The officers said they hope by sharing their concerns in public it could begin to make things better for their fellow officers.
"I love what I do, been doing it for a while and I just hope it changes. Not just for the officers, but for the people out here and for the inmates. Somebody has to speak up for the officers; they're not going to because they're afraid of losing their jobs."