Standing like a soldier reporting for duty, Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell waited as the County Commission decided her office would keep control of the county jail.
The commission unanimously approved an agreement Tuesday morning between the county and ASO to allow the Sheriff’s Office to keep control for the next six years, rather than turning the jail over to the county, but on one condition.
Under the contract, which was made by Darnell and county officials, the county must “use reasonable efforts” to reserve money to hire 34 more jail employees.
If the county fails to fund the extra staff Darnell has consistently requested, she can terminate the contract before Oct. 1, turning over control of the jail to county officials.
To fund the requested 34 employees, the contract states the county should spend no more than $900,000 from the upcoming budget and $900,000 from next year’s budget
Darnell asked the commission in August 2010 for 46 more employees because she felt the jail was understaffed. Many employees were working overtime and weren’t getting enough time off to get additional training.
At the time, Darnell estimated the cost of the extra staff to be $2 million. The commission did not approve her request.
The commissioners decided to pay a criminal justice consulting firm $179,000 to research how many employees the jail needed.
The study called for 18 extra employees to increase security and oversight and another 16 employees to run new and existing jail programs.
Commissioner Lee Pinkoson said it will be difficult to fund that many positions, especially with looming budget cuts.
Darnell said she was pleased about the agreement.
“If they believe that only 18 additional employees are needed at the jail, then they can have it,” she said. “But for now, this is a huge win.”
Contact Adrianna Paidas at apaidas@alligator.org.
