Commissioners concerned over sheriff’s office budget

JACKSON, Tenn. — County commissioners say the Madison County Sheriff’s Office is over budget by almost $1 million.

“We just can’t continue down this path. We need to get something budgeted,” Doug Stephenson, budget committee chairman, said.

And at Tuesday’s county commission meeting, the commission approved an additional $125,000 for medical supplies for inmates.

“It’s not just one thing. They’re having difficulties hiring jailers, which I understand. They’re having difficulties with the number of prisoners because of medical,” Stephenson said.

Sheriff John Mehr says one of their major problems is employees not staying for more than a few months.

“We’ve done staffing analysis, we’re way under. We’ve always been under on detention officers same way in our patrol division or court security,” Mehr said.

Mehr says they have to plan for several things including SRO’s, patrol, court security, and the jail.

“It has to do with the jail, the amount of inmates in the jail, and the jail is a big part of the sheriff’s department’s budget,” Sheriff Mehr said.

And Stephenson says the sheriff is going to have to start making some tough decisions.

“That is unsustainable, that we move in that direction. We’re gonna have to move things to be able to handle the growth,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson says one of the major things the sheriff’s office needs to do is use the training center to bring in more money.
This is the third year in a row the sheriff’s office has asked for additional funding from what was approved in the original budget.