Council undecided on jail facility fate

Kilgore officials are undecided as to what they should do with the inmate holding facility after a fourth suicide within the cells occurred just more than two weeks ago.

Ronnie Moore, director of public safety, presented two options to the city council last night at a special meeting.

According to Moore, the facility is intended to temporarily hold inmates for 72 to 96 hours. Any time beyond that is spent at Gregg County Jail.

Moore said of the 1,500 inmates booked annually, the majority of inmates secured in Kilgore are incarcerated on Class C misdemeanors. Some — approximately 600 — are in for more serious misdemeanor offenses or felonies.

"If we are going to continue to have a holding facility we need personnel," Moore said.

Moore told council that the facility needs four to five jailers who would make rounds in the facility — check on inmates — every five to 10 minutes.

Moore worked with Jeff Howell, city manager, this week to come up with a cost of approximately $200,000 to $210,000 annually for the added employees, based on "competitive" wages and benefits.

"You have to remember, even if we hire this personnel and put them on, we still have liabilities," Moore said

The second option presented to council has the city hiring the same number of jailers, at the same wage, who would transport inmates from Kilgore to Gregg County Jail.

According to Moore, Maxey Cerliano, Gregg County sheriff, has quoted the city a rate of $39.75 per inmate, per day.

Moore said the cost would fluctuate with the number of inmates, but could come close to another $95,000 annually.

Moore said the reason the city would require additional personnel for transport is that trav- el to Longview, inmate booking procedures and travel back to Kilgore could potentially strip the city of certified police officers, if they were used in that capacity.

Moore said another reason to hire jailers for transport is that additional police would require a higher rate of pay and that police are not certified in inmate management.

Randy Renshaw, councilman, voiced his concern that, like the county jail, Kilgore could experience trouble with wage competition and keeping the positions filled. Moore said Kilgore could be competitive because "the stress level and volume of prisoner contact is a lot different."

Joe Parker, mayor, said that the city would still have a liability in inmate transport with the chance of a vehicle accident.

"You've got liability walking across the street," Renshaw said.

Finally, council asked Moore to compile more information on transportat costs and jailer costs as well as costs to construct a new facility.

For now, Moore has spent $1,000 on jumpsuits so that inmates are stripped of all personal belongings, searched and then outfitted with a jumpsuit. Using a necktie that he wore as a belt, Ray Parker hung himself in the city jail two weeks ago. The department said afterward that the tie wasn't bulky enough to be detected in a pat-down search.

With the jumpsuits "... we can physically look and make sure the inmates have nothing on them," Moore said.