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Hardin County Courthouse
A Southeast Texas county jail, which was one of 20 found to be in non-compliance with Texas Minimum Jail Standards as codified in the Texas Administrative Code, should soon return to compliance.
According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, Hardin County Judge Wayne McDaniel and Sheriff Mark Davis received a letter dated July 20 that the Hardin County Jail “fails to comply with minimum standards” established under VTCA Local Government Code. The letter was from Executive Director Brandon S. Wood.
According to the letter, the Inspection Requirement Review and Jail Inspection Report was issued on July 12. According to the report, infrastructure problems in the jail stem from a November 2021 lightning strike during a thunderstorm that damaged various electronic components, including the intercom system, and they have not yet been repaired or replaced.
The sheriff said work continues on the issues and the jail should be back into compliance soon.
“You have the door controllers and the intercoms, then you have the fire panel and sensors,” Davis said. “They are working on them together, simultaneously.”
He said it could be two weeks or less before the repairs are finished.
“We’re 95% on one and we’re getting there on the other,” Davis added.
Davis reported last month that work on the repairs started in late May, but the vendor working on the issues was waiting for parts that were on back order with an arrival date as late as October.
“But we found another vendor with parts,” he said. “It cost us a little extra money, but they had them in stock. The parts that were on back order were base level and you can get them with a little more bells and whistles for a little bit extra money, and so we did. We couldn’t hold up the job any longer.”
Davis said the state gives a jail six months to get into compliance before getting in the “dog house.”
“With us, it was pretty simple: ‘Get your stuff working and then we’ll come back a check off on everything.’ They saw where we made progress and they saw where we went out for bids,” he said. “That was a multi-$100,000 job.”
The sheriff kept the inspector updated weekly on the repairs, and staff continued to be on fire watch for the safety of the inmates.
“We’re having to pay overtime to have a human fire watch because we don’t have the fire alarms and sensors activated,” Davis said.
Additionally, the report stated, inspectors observed graffiti on cell walls along with excess clutter in the cells, and there were only two kitchen workers who had proper training for handling food.
According to the report, the sheriff has 14 days to get several staff members their food handler’s training and submit credentials to the inspector.
Counties that have received the official notice of non-compliance will be removed immediately upon attaining compliance.