With flying colors
By Lisa Morton
The 54-year-old Culberson County Jail facility passed the Texas Commission on Jail Standards recently with zero findings. An unannounced 4 to 5-hour site inspection was conducted of the facility, and interviews of the inmates and sheriff’s personnel.
In 1997, the Texas legislature affirmed that “counties, municipalities and private vendors housing out-of-state inmates were within the Commission’s jurisdiction. It is the duty of the Commission to promulgate reasonable written rules and procedures establishing minimum standards, inspection procedures, enforcement policies and technical assistance for:
The construction, equipment, maintenance, and operation of jail facilities under its jurisdiction;
The custody, care, and treatment of inmates;
Programs of rehabilitation, education, and recreation for inmates confined in county and municipal jail facilities under its jurisdiction.”
Sheriff Oscar Carrillo takes these inspections very seriously and makes modifications annually. His staff is “busting at the seams” with procedural work that without the aid of an Automated Jail Management System, a $40,000 technology system, leads to mountains of paperwork for everything from booking to an inmate’s request for an aspirin.
The Sheriff and his staff stay vigilant by conducting weekly and monthly testing to meet all mandates and to remain in compliance and stay open.
