Wichita County Commissioners on Jan. 10 received a salaries and overtime report that showed the county jail's daily population has increased by nearly 100 inmates compared with the same period last year, while the county currently has about 15 open positions across law enforcement and corrections.

County staff told commissioners that, despite the higher population, overtime spending in the sheriff's office is down compared with this time last year. Staff attributed the change to schedule adjustments and use of housing contracts with other jurisdictions; a two-week analysis presented to the court showed net revenue of more than $60,000 tied to outside inmate housing during that period. The analysis included overtime costs and the revenue produced by contracted pods for other counties.

Officials described scheduling changes intended to reduce overtime pressure: supervisors are shifting from block schedules to day and night cards, with typical rotations of five days on/five off or four days on/three off when staffing permits. Staff also said the county ran a training class this pay period and plans to stagger future classes so additional jail school sessions would not be required until August, helping limit short-term training expenses.

Commissioners discussed turnover and recruitment. Staff reported recent departures, including officers who left for municipal police departments and military service, and said many separations involved short-term hires who left after a few weeks or months. To grow the pipeline of recruits, staff said they are continuing talks with Wichita Falls Independent School District about a jailer program for students and expected meetings soon to engage parents and students.

The court also heard of a possible partnership stemming from a separate meeting with CoreHealth and MSU to develop correctional nursing cooperation; staff said that model could reduce the county's reliance on outside nurses under its CoreHealth contract and could attract nursing students to the community.

Commissioners were told courthouse-security metrics for the recent reporting period: 386 arrests, 248 days courthouse was open for screening, and 133,763 people processed through security screening. Staff also noted the county has lost patrol officers to other agencies in recent weeks, and that state agencies typically offer higher pay, which affects local retention.

On budget matters, staff said budget code 561 likely ran approximately $200,000 over for last year, and that roughly $140,000 of that overage related to a Cornerstone software purchase. County staff said they plan an end-of-year cleanup and accrual adjustments in the coming weeks to align accounts.

No formal action was taken by the court during the discussion; commissioners received the report and asked staff to continue recruitment efforts and follow up on workforce-development meetings with school and higher-education partners.