There seems to be a common mis conception of the "Jailers" of Fisher County and if I was guessing not just Fisher County but everywhere. I'm going to try to clear that up for all the citizens of Fisher County. The "Jailers" of Fisher County are not just jailers, they also must handle dispatch including being the 911 call center. In the last few Commissioners Court meetings, the certifications employees must have has been brought up several times. Yes other offices have to have certifications to perform their jobs, but their training to get those certifications directly trains them to do that specific job, the training the "Jailers" receive prepares them to handle the job but in no way trains them to deal with specific situations. I am hoping writing this gives everyone a better understanding of what a "Jailer" does. Some may ask why I have been putting Jailer in quotations, I have done that because that is how we are perceived, just a Jailer.
First off, the correct title for the job is Corrections Officer/Communications Officer. Everyone that works here must be trained in both. The Corrections Officer is to maintain the safety and security of the inmates of Fisher County Jail, sounds simple right? I'll explain later why it is not as simple as it sounds. The Communications Officer, well that's a whole different ball game because they don't just have one job. By the way your 911 dispatchers as of September 1, 2019 are recognized as first responders and it was long overdue because we are the very first responders. To even be considered for the job by law you must have a valid driver's license and no criminal history that is a misdemeanor B or above, except for family violence charges which eliminates you no matter the degree. After you have went through the interview process and have been hired, you must go have a physical and drug screen, and go through a psychological evaluation, again required by law to pass them all. All of this must be done before you can even start your informal training. For training you start out learning the basics like multitasking, listening, how to answer 911, how to talk on the phone and radio and that's just the beginning for the communications part. The Corrections Officer in training, learns how to do walk arounds with the licensed Officer for every 30 minute cell check and sometimes if you have a special watch you time is cut down to 15 minutes, log everything that is done with the inmates including when you give them meals, hygiene, mail, medications, sharpen their pencil and the other task that the inmate has the right to have and can file a complaint and in some cases sue you if it is not done or even not done the way you are required to. I know that it sounds funny to be required to do something, for example, as giving someone their medications; a count has to be kept, the inmate has to sign for the medication so they cannot come back later and say they never received it, you have to watch them swallow the medication, check the inmates mouth to make sure they did swallow the medication and not hording it to get high, to harm themselves or to trade it with other inmates for food or a drink. Oh, and guess what you still must do all of that and still complete your 30-minute checks. I know some of you are saying the required time is one hour for checks and yes that is true unless you have an inmate in holding or a separation cell which are 30-minute checks. At Fisher County Jail we do 30 minute checks on all cells because there is only four sections of the jail and it ensures that no matter what is going on we always have at least the one hour check (which by the way if you miss it by even a minute you can get written up by Jail Standards ·for it) done no matter what is going on. This is just one example; I'll get to more later. The training that is required by law, if you can find an actual class being held during the pandemic and very few held in our area when things are normal, for a Corrections Officer is a three week classroom training course that includes defensive tactics and in some academy's getting sprayed with pepper spray, doesn't that sound like fun?. If we do the online training, you have forty-five days to complete it with no instructor to help answer questions and you still must have three days of hands on physical skills training you have to complete. For the Communications Officer it is a two-week classroom training course. If you do the on line training, you again have forty-five days to complete it with no instructor to help answer questions. The Communications Officer also must have a three-day class on the state computer system to be able to run vehicle plates, drivers license, etc. The Corrections and Communications Officer must pass a state exam with a score no less than 80 to receive their certification, most do not pass it on their first attempt and if they do not pass it after a third attempt they can not be certified for another year, they have to start all over again with the classes, and can not work until they do get certified.
Now let's get into the specific job functions for the Corrections Officer and Communications Officers. The Corrections Officer is certainly not what the public thinks it is, we do not just sit around and watch the inmates. First thing every shift you must do a head count to make sure every inmate is accounted for and still alive, this means you may have to wake the inmate up if you can not tell they are okay and believe me when I say they do not appreciate this early in the morning, but I'm guessing not many people would. Then the rest of the day begins. As I have stated earlier you have 30-minute checks of every inmate on a normal check and 15-minute checks if you have anyone in holding, separation or on special watch (suicide watch, violent cell, medical issues, detoxing just to name a few). This all must be logged with the date, time and what the inmates were doing at the time of the check. For a small jail like Fisher County it should take no more than 5 minutes to complete if an inmate doesn't stop you to ask you for something or just want to complain and how often do you think that happens? If we are doing anything when it comes time to do the check you have to stop what ever you are doing and go do the check. Since the Communications Officer can not leave the Corrections Officer must put the inmate in a cell until they are done then get them back out again to continue with the booking process. This means depending on how cooperative the inmate is, they may have to stop several times before the process is complete. If you are lucky, booking an inmate from start to finish may only take 30 minutes to an hour, if you are lucky which 9 times out of 10, you're not going to be. The booking process consist of getting all their personal information, letting them make the two phones calls we are required to offer them, getting fingerprints in most cases, medical information and mental screening. The medical screening is like the one you must fill out when you go to a new doctor and we all know how long that can take. The mental screening is set up in the same fashion except depending on how they answer some of the questions you may have to stop what you are doing to contact the mental health authority immediately by law. When you call the hotline for the mental health authority, they have questions they have to ask you to even start the process. Don't forget during all this you still have to do your required checks. Once you get all the information from the inmate and place them in a holding cell, you still have other required paperwork you must complete before they can be moved to general population. You finally get the inmate in general population, then the real work begins. Not only does the Corrections Officer have to do checks but they also have to make sure the inmates have toilet paper, hygiene items, serve them meals, give them their medications, make sure everything in the cell is working correctly, take them to recreation 3 days a week, take them to library, make sure they are dressed and ready for court, conduct visitation, pick up, deliver and monitor all incoming and outgoing mail, take them to medical for doctor appointments and deal with being cursed at, yelled at, threatened and deal with the complaints about you not doing your job. Oh and by the way all of this has to be logged and you still have to do your checks. If an inmate decides to twist off while the Corrections Officer has them out of the cell taking them to another room, the Corrections Officer is on their own until an Officer can get to the jail, there is no backup, so you hope and pray you can hold your own until help arrives. I can hear it now; someone is saying what about the other person on duty? The Communications Officer can't leave the radio or 911 unattended so all they could do would be to watch it happen on the camera. Talk about feeling helpless! We deal with the jailhouse lawyer always threatening to sue us or get us fired, we deal with the drunk or the person that is so high they have no clue that they are constantly yelling, hitting the windows or pushing the intercom button because they think they are dying or they want out because they are here illegally. We deal with the ones that just want to see how far they can push before we have finally had enough (by the way we can't ever show when we have had enough, we just have to deal with it). We deal with the families or friends calling yelling and cursing us because we have them in jail and they want to know why and what's going on. Do you still think it's simple?
The Communications Officer everyone thinks just answers phones and talks on the radio, if it were only that simple! I have already explained the formal training for the position, but do you know what kind of person it takes to do this job and hear the things we do? It takes someone that can listen to several different radios at one time, remain calm when all you want to do is break down because of a bad call, someone that can feel compassion but still be able to get someone the help they need. There is no training for any of that, there is suggestions on how to handle it, but how do you train someone to do it? You can't, it takes a special kind of person to handle what we do, not everyone can and there is nothing wrong with that. Multitasking is one of the most important thing you have to have to do this job. When we get a call about a wreck with injuries and entrapment, we have to not only get an Officer on the way we also have to contact DPS, page out EMS and page out the Fire Departments. All of these agencies come thru us for radio traffic and sometimes they are all talking to you at once. You have to be able to listen and respond to each one, keep a log of what they are saying, and fill out reports of times for some. For some that sounds pretty simple but add to it the 911 calls we are getting about it plus the ones that just call the Sheriff's Office about the same incident. We can't just say we have someone on the way, you have to see if they might have more information about it to help everyone responding. You can't just not answer a call because you are busy, keep in mind most of the time it's just one person handling all of the calls and radio traffic. I had one call that the lady and her husband got lost on a county road and rolled their vehicle, the lady was trapped in the vehicle with her husband dead beside her, can you imagine the hysteria she was in and what it was like trying to get information from her? This lady did not even know where they were so in that case we have to try to get them to describe what they see, where they were last and where they were going so that we could even start to look for them. Unfortunately that call did not end well so then I started trying to figure out what else I could have done, which was nothing, but it still stays in the back of your mind. Let's hope it never happens again, but what about 2011 and the big fire that was headed toward Rotan. Who do you think everyone was calling for answers? There were two dispatchers that never left the office for two days because of the amount of calls. We had to call in extra help for that because there was no way possible for even two people to handle all of it. We made the calls to have the Churches open up, we made the calls to try to get the first responders more help, food and water.
Our job isn't just sending someone where they need to go, we also try to make sure they have what they need when they are there. We are the ones that get yelled at when someone has a complaint. We are the ones that get cursed when we are trying to get more information to get you the help you need. We are the ones that get told to just do our job and quit being nosey. We are the ones that very rarely know how a call ended or even what's going on while someone is there. You can't train someone to just shut down their own emotions when a mother calls that went into labor at home and lost the baby, can you imagine having to take that call and keeping yourself composed enough to get everyone there? What about the elderly man calling because his wife is dying and he is so hysterical that he can't even tell you his address? Or the elderly man calling crying and hysterical because he thinks one of his workers is dead down in a well and not sure the other is alive, he can't even tell you what kind of well or what happened because he is only yelling for someone to get there quick. Could you handle all the raw emotions of these people and still be able to get them the help they need? Most people can't and some days on some calls we have to call someone to come help us because we can't handle the stress and emotions ourselves. Corrections Officer and Communications Officers are far from perfect just like the rest of the world, but maybe this will enlighten some that do believe we are lucky to have a job or that we are just a jailer.
-Robin Cleveland, Roby, TX