County OKs five additional jailers

By PAUL STONE
The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE July 08, 2008 02:58 am

— Anderson County commissioners gave the OK Monday for Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor to hire five new jailers during a special meeting.
The positions were included in this year’s county budget as a contingency item based largely on the possibility of the Anderson County Jail housing inmates from outside entities.
Also on Monday, the commissioners’ court approved a contract with CiviGenics, a private jail firm which operates facilities in Groesbeck, Lufkin and Texarkana, to house some of their inmates at a rate of $34 per inmate per day.
Anderson County previously had entered similar contracts with both Smith and Houston counties.
Combining the new facility with the old wing, the Anderson County Jail ultimately will have a total of 305 beds. Work, however, currently is being done on the fire alarm system at the old wing, according to the sheriff.
“We’re still in the process of getting the old jail finished,” Taylor said Monday. “It should be about there, probably (completed) about the first of August.”
The old wing includes 100 beds.
Once those renovations have been completed, Taylor is hopeful the jail will be ready to start housing out-of-county inmates.
Even without the outside inmates, however, the sheriff said the new wing of the jail, which has 205 beds, was nearly full Monday, with a record-high 197 inmates.
“That’s an all-time high for Anderson County,” Taylor said. “And summer’s not even halfway over.”
Commissioners are expected to consider hiring a new jail records clerk during an upcoming meeting, according to the sheriff.
That position also is listed in this year’s budget as a contingency item.
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Paul Stone may be contacted via e-mail at pstone@palestineherald.com