County leaders told the Jim Wells County Commissioners Court during a Sept. 3 budget workshop that the county jail is operating well beyond capacity and that the shortfall is increasing costs and staff overtime.

County Sheriff Joseph Guy Baker, speaking to the court by name, said the sheriff's Office is "the keeper of the jail" and does not set personal-recognizance bonds or release detainees. He said staffing shortages are severe: "By the end of today, it'll be probably less than half of the jail staff," and many jail employees are leaving for higher pay with private transport companies and other agencies. Baker asked the court for two additional deputies to help with violent-crime response and daily transports, and for a new jail-administrator position with a proposed salary of $65,000, plus a lieutenant position at $50,000 to create career progression.

County Attorney Michael Guerra said multiple factors are contributing to the problem, including front-end magistrate practices and delayed hearings. Guerra cited the Damon Allen Act and said some magistrates may not be consistently using pretrial risk assessments before setting bonds. "If we address all those factors, I think we can still get it under control," Guerra said.

District Attorney Carlos Garcia told the court his office is struggling to hire prosecutors and is "down 3 attorneys," and said neighboring counties are advertising substantially higher pay, which makes recruitment harder. "We're having a lot of difficulties," Garcia said. He and other officials said nonfiscal measures so far ' such as extra court dockets and administrative handling by probation ' have not been sufficient.

Constable Geraldadis Mendez, representing the Jim Wells County Constables Coalition, described daily operational strain and noted the county had 141 detainees and 80 beds on the morning of Sept. 3: "We have 80 beds. Listen to me. We have 80 beds. We have a 141 offenders that are arrested." He urged the court to pursue state salary-assistance grants for constables and deputies.

Court members discussed short-term budget approaches. The commissioners asked staff to include a contingency figure for jail-related costs in the amended budget; county officials discussed a placeholder in the range of $500,000 to $600,000 for the current fiscal year to cover housing and related expenses if required. County staff warned that contingency funds, if placed in the jail line, should not be transferable to other line items.

Sheriff Baker provided additional budget figures and operational detail: the department reported seven vacant jailer positions and about eight total vacancies including the administrator role; starting pay for a jailer was cited as $40,000; Baker said transport and housing out-of-county cost roughly $75 to $80 per day per inmate. At one point the sheriff's request total for personnel changes and related line items was summarized as $245,333.

The court did not adopt a final budget amendment on Sept. 3; the discussion was part of the ongoing 2026 budget workshop process and the court scheduled follow-up work and final budget decisions for later meetings.

Ending: Commissioners directed staff to model contingency options for jail costs and to include requested staffing changes in budget projections for the next hearing. No formal ordinance or final appropriation related to a jail expansion or new facility was adopted on Sept. 3.