Sheriff Ron Hickman asked Harris County leaders for a $22 million budget increase.
Largest chunk of request covers patrol, jail costs
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman has asked county leaders for a $22 million increase to his budget in the new fiscal year, including $12 million more for patrol operations, $7.8 million for medical costs and $2.2 million for the jail.
The year-to-year increase does not differ much from what his predecessor, Sheriff Adrian Garcia, requested a year ago. Garcia upped his budget by $21.4 million from 2014 to 2015.
The largest chunk of the sheriff’s 2016-17 budget covers payroll, including a request for $9.5 million in overtime. But Hickman’s spending plan also shows the heft of housing, feeding and providing medical care for more than 8,000 individuals detained at the jail. The sheriff asked for $8.2 million for food, $11 million for pharmaceuticals and $8.4 million for psychiatric services.
Commissioners Court is scheduled to discuss policy priorities Jan. 26 and adopt a final budget Feb. 9.
The budget manager for the county, Bill Jackson, said Hickman is asking for about $3 million more than he was allocated, $2 million of it for medical costs and $1 million toward the jail. Jackson said he did not anticipate much nitpicking by the court members about the sheriff’s requests. He said the sheriff ’s total “will probably go up some, but we will keep an eye on spending midyear based on the jail population.”
Jackson had budgeted $456.5 million for the sheriff ’s office.
At an early budget presentation last month, Hickman highlighted what he viewed as the department’s key accomplishments for the past year. He said he transferred 58 deputies and supervisors to the patrol division, adding a few personnel to the homicide, domestic violence, crimes against children and robbery divisions. He added 50 patrol cars to the fleet and added 166 mobile fingerprinting devices that can be used in the field.
In addition, Hickman raised the minimum age for a jail guard from 18 to 21.
The sheriff’s Critical Incident Response Team handled 10,798 calls resulting in 3,846 emergency detentions and 1,286 jail diversions last year.
He noted in his presentation that the department had completed the process, initiated by Garcia, of privatizing the commissary and the kitchen at the jail.
The sheriff downsized from 15 to eight the staff that conducts in-house reviews of the jail’s compliance with state regulations for living standards. Hickman also disbanded the unit that proactively examines internal affairs matters in the department, opting instead for what he called a “reactive” team.
In terms of finances, the sheriff maintained $3.8 million in grants the office has tapped in previous years.
He ended two programs paid for with money the inmates spend at the commissary, cutting ties with contractors he deemed “unnecessary.” One was a gender identity and sexual orientation training for staffers that would have cost $14,000 and another was an outside prison ministry run by Mike Barber that would have charged $206,000.