The Shaw County Commissioners Court received a status report on jail staffing Friday that described persistent vacancies, high overtime and efforts to recruit new staff.

Why it matters: court members heard that staffing gaps and routine sick and vacation coverage have driven overtime pay well above budget assumptions. County officials said the current budgeting method does not separately capture the cost of backfilling routine leave, which they estimated as a substantial, recurring expense.

What officials reported: the jail chief (identified in the meeting as the jail chief) told the court the facility had 16 people waiting to be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) the prior week, an average daily population around 600 and 53 outstanding maintenance work orders in the week reported. The chief said the facility logged 2,762 overtime hours during a recent two-week pay period while operating with 12 open positions. Of those hours, about 1,152 were attributable to vacant positions and roughly 1,195 were for sick or vacation coverage, leaving about 330 hours that pay-period identified as “unaccounted” short-staffing hours.

Budget and accounting point: staff explained that payroll and overtime accounting in prior years shows the jail ran over budget in fiscal 2024 and 2025 because open positions and leave-driven coverage raise overtime. The chief and auditors discussed that if the county captured a separate line for relief coverage the reported overtime picture would change; the county is considering how to reflect those recurring costs in future budgets.

Recruitment and pipeline: officials said the county is expanding recruitment and building a training pathway with local schools. The court discussed a plan to create a high‑school program (the judge and jail staff named local high-school and Vernon College partners) that would allow graduates to test and onboard faster, subject to state jail-licensing and background requirements. The jail chief said high-school entrants still must complete background checks and meet licensing standards and that the county is pursuing limited pilot classes for early hires.

Comparisons and trade-offs: the court compared Shaw County to a neighboring county that budgets more salary dollars and shows lower overtime; commissioners noted a trade-off between paying more salary to maintain bench depth and the county’s difficulty filling the positions it already has.

Next steps: staff will continue recruitment efforts, run annual overtime comparisons, and track whether the school pipeline produces hires. The auditors and jail leadership will also refine budget presentations to show relief and leave coverage costs more transparently.

Ending: commissioners asked staff to return with more exact comparisons of fully staffed cost versus overtime-heavy operations so the court can evaluate hiring versus overtime trade-offs.