Sheriff’s office approved for more jail staff

To help mitigate the amount of overtime and mandated work hours accrued by employees at the Jasper County Jail, the county board of supervisors on July 20 unanimously approved the sheriff’s request for additional full-time staffing, which he said is needed to keep up with the heavier workload.

Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty asked for one or two extra jailer positions. To his surprise, the supervisors gave him three. One position will be paid for using funds from the sheriff’s office budget, while the other two will be funded through the county supervisors’ budget.

Before he asked for approval of additional employees, Halferty read aloud two letters: one from a medical care provider with Capstone Behavioral Healthcare and the other from an inmate who may potentially serve life in prison. Capstone’s letter said, “Thanks for always taking such good care of our clients.”

The second letter was addressed to the jailers. In a post script note, the inmate — whose name was not revealed at the Jasper County Board of Supervisors meeting — asked whoever was in charge to please let everyone read the letter:

I’m not sure why, but I felt the inclination to send (you all) a card. Every single one of you that looked after me changed my outlook on many things. My life CHANGED in that jail. I started living (again).

Although I miss you all and it’s not the same without your presence and kind words, I know everything happens for a reason. I thought I was in control. Turns out I never was. God has a plan for each of us individually and as a whole. I pray that if you haven’t ran into that realization yet that you do.

There’s a time and place for everything. Thank you, every single one of you, for everything you did for me. I won’t ever forget it. Or you.

Some might ask why an inmate would send a letter like that, Halferty said. To him, that’s a compliment to his jail staff.

“They are inmates, they are there for criminal charges — but they’re people,” Halferty said, noting the inmate may never get out of prison but still had the inclination to write a letter like this. “I wanted to set the tone because I wanted to share some information with you and consider a request.”

Currently, a chief jailer and an assistant chief jailer handle the “administrative challenges” and largely oversee the Jasper County Jail operations. All 16 full-time jail staff positions are filled. The jail also has six part-time positions approved, but only two are filled.

After advertising the open part-time positions, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office received zero applications. Normally, part-time jailers start out at $19 per hour. In the past two weeks, the sheriff’s office paid 107 hours of overtime and mandated every staff member to work additional hours — many of them more than once.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in the maintenance and duties of our inmates,” Halferty said, listing some off. “The mental health and substance abuse challenges, everyday meals, medication, doing laundry, court appointments, medical checkups, cell checkups, cleaning and documentation.”

Granted, the Jasper County Jail has to maintain the same amount of minimum staff whether there are 25 inmates or 90 inmates, the sheriff added. Staff also have to comply with federal requirements, such as the Prison Rape Elimination Act. Segregation cells are currently full at Jasper County Jail, too.

Halferty said the jail’s female holding is currently full and has had to sometimes turn other law enforcement agencies away. The Jasper County Jail occasionally holds inmates from Polk County, but most notably holds inmates from Warren County while the region attempts to finish a new jail construction by May 2022.

Sometimes staff are called upon to help inmates experiencing a mental health crisis. Halferty commended his team and spoke highly of his staff, which is why he said he read those letters to supervisors. Jasper County Jail needs to not only acquire new staff but maintain its current team, Halferty said.

“I don’t want to lose them,” he said. “And it’s in the best interest of their health. We have to have a minimum staff of three on at all times: one in control, one in booking and then what we call a ‘roam’ who can go from pod to pod or provide assistance. I myself have had to go hands on with inmates in the past two weeks.”

Halferty said he won’t sit back and watch as his staff “go hands on” with violent inmates. The jail is getting busier, too. Past remodels of the jail pods have helped the jail house more inmates and provide some segregation when inmates can’t get along or need to be sectioned off from others for safety reasons.

Since 2013 the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office has brought in almost $2.2 million in revenue, Halferty said, although a majority of the revenue was gained after 2016. The sheriff said he never expected to get that money back.

“I never have,” he said. “I expect it to be used for the county. But I can tell you that we need to hire one — if not two — new jail positions. We can’t hire part-time. There’s no interest. And what we anticipate with that is we can staff four on all shifts at all times.”

There will still be times when a jailer will be allowed time off and the jail can operate under three employees. Halferty said the new hires would significantly decrease overtime and mandating work hours. The sheriff also said employees know interruptions are common and they will have to make sacrifices.

“But if we can limit that and keep these staff members that have some longevity on, I think we’re going to continue to get these nice notes and we’re going to continue to work partnerships with Polk County and Warren County,” Halferty said. “That’s my speech.”

The Jasper County Board of Supervisors sympathized with Halferty’s plight, granting his request and then some. Jasper County Supervisor Brandon Talsma recommended Halferty to immediately begin hiring for another full-time jailer position, then another this same year and then a third jailer for next fiscal year.

Jasper County Auditor Dennis Parrott said the county is actually able to hire all three in FY22, so long as one position comes from the sheriff’s office budget and the other two from the supervisors’ budget. Parrott estimated the cost of the positions would be about $50,000 a piece — so about $150,000.

The supervisors voted 3-0 to authorize the hiring of three new jailers.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com