The Cole County Commission decided not to add more positions in the Cole County Jail.
Meeting with commissioners Tuesday, Sheriff John Wheeler proposed moving two current jail personnel to sergeant and corporal positions and hiring two new jailers.
Over the last six months, Wheeler said, the jail staff has been working 12-hour shifts. Staff said working these shifts should allow them to cut down on overtime and part-time hours, which could help pay for the positions, Wheeler told commissioners.
The sergeant's salary would be $40,000, the corporal's $38,000 and a total of $90,000 fund the new jailers' salaries.
"Since we moved over to the new jail in 2011, we don't have a property officer in the jail, and there's been a lot of other details we've had to deal with that having some more bodies would have helped," Wheeler said. "We've asked for manpower for years and continue to deal with problems with staffing."
Last year, the commission approved adding four employees for the Sheriff's Department after spiking a similar request in 2015. The department hired three jailers, along with one detective in the patrol division. The money for the positions came out of the law enforcement contingency fund.
"What bugs me about this is what this would mean for the budget in 2018," Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher said. "I think this is a discussion for when we start putting together the budget, which will be coming up before you know it."
When the new jail opened in 2011, Hoelscher said, the facility's new technology was supposed to allow jailers to get more done.
Wheeler said that was somewhat true, but with only six or seven jailers guarding as many as 137 prisoners on a given night, and doubling the inmate processing to more than 6,000 at the new jail, more staff is still needed.
A study done before the new jail opened estimated as many as 47 personnel would be needed for it to run properly. Commissioners at that time decided to go with 35, up from the 18 previously running the old jail.
"I'll have to get them back on to eight-hour shifts because I can't ask them to continue to do 12-hour shifts," Wheeler said. "I don't think you know what it's like to have to work 12 hours straight in a jail. By moving back, though, our overtime will go back up."
Wheeler said ideally he'd like to get six more jailers and have the jail staff work 10-hour shifts.