Open letter from Brian Adams (candidate for Berkeley Co. Sheriff):
Recently, the Berkeley County Detention Center has been a major topic for the Sheriff’s Office. The detention center had a new extension constructed adding badly needed space. Construction was completed over three years ago, but has been laying dormant and has not been used due to lack of personnel required by State mandated staffing levels to operate safely. The bottom floor was just opened this past year.
Since this has become an issue, we as Berkeley County tax payers, have been told that the fault lies with the County Supervisor and some of the council members. This has been said several times over the past few months by the Sheriff himself and some others. I believe this is a poor act of pushing blame from one to another. I, for one, am tired of hearing that it is someone else’s fault yet nothing is ever fixed.
As an elected official, the Sheriff should have been making this an issue from the moment the construction started on the detention center as part of the cost and planning and kept it at the forefront. As an added note, the Sheriff also had the opportunity to provide three officers to the detention center or for patrol, however, the sheriff felt it was of more importance to add a administrative Major position instead most recently and delete these positions to fund the Major position.
A detention center should not have been built without funding for personnel required for the safe operation and security in accordance with well known State guidelines. Money has been wasted over the past three years for the upkeep and repairs of the new constructed extension. This being diverted from the detention center operations budget that these were not allotted. The Sheriff is asking for council to fund additional personnel for the detention center now which should have been requested in each past annual budget as well as the initial construction planning. This should have been a priority on his budget over the past three years, which it was not, and these costs continue to rise. This is not the only problem that the detention center faces. A significant problem is the rapid turnover of personnel.
According to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), in the past year and a half, the detention center has had 30 detention officers resign, 17 in the past six months alone. The detention center is suppose to have 48 certified detention officers employed by the county. This means there has been more than a 62% turnover rate through the detention center. In addition, there is the cost of training, equipment, and overtime the other officers must work to compensate for those who have left to maintain staffing levels as required by the state.
Even if the council approves the additional detention officers, they probably would be unable to maintain a proper staffing in order to open any new part of the detention center since they can not maintain current staffing levels. The constant turnover poses an extreme safety issue for staff and inmates without and secure detention officers with proper training but minimal experience to maintain a safe environment while implementing proper policies and procedures.
(Note: Letters to the Editor do no represent endorsements from The Berkeley Observer)
