The Texas Commission on Jail Standards conducted its annual inspection last week, and due to three violations, the state issued a notice on noncompliance with minimum standards. Remediation measures are being initiated, and the sheriff informed commissioners on Monday the issues would be corrected well within 90 days.
During the onset of the pandemic and while facing significant staffing shortages, the Fisher County Commissioners approved depopulating the jail in March 2020. Inmates were housed in neighboring Scurry County, as the facility would remain closed and operating with minimal staff for roughly 18 months.
When Fisher County Commissioners appointed Sheriff Randy Ford in May, he made re-opening the jail a top priority. He made good on that promise, and inmates returned to Fisher County in October.
On January 3, inspectors discovered a total of three violations. One was due to the fire marshal that conducted the fire safety inspection lacking the proper certifications with the Texas Commission on Fire Protection. The second was regarding a lapse in the staff’s review of suicide prevention training. The third was due to a procedural error when communicating with the magistrate regarding suicide screening. The second and third violations were also noted as a deficiency during the last inspection in 2019.
Ford was candid when admitting that while the violations noted did need to be addressed, the overall inspection process went better than expected. “I thought we might have had a few more dings than we did to be quite honest,” said Ford. “We knew we were weak in some areas, so this was nothing we didn’t anticipate.”
The deficiencies were not egregious in nature, with Ford pointing out how it essentially boiled down to paperwork issues and that partial documentation is simply not sufficient to pass inspections. Other issues were due to education that expired while the jail was closed and has not had the time to address those issues properly.
“It has been a fairly short turnaround cycle for us, but nothing that is too big of an issue,” said Ford. “It will be taken care of quickly.”