Adams County Sheriff’s Office looking to complete staffing for new jail

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - Although the new Adams County jail isn’t open yet, the Sheriff’s Office is looking for employees to staff the facility.

Sheriff John Rust said they have been attempting to hire and train employees for when the facility opens in January but still have quite a few openings; and they’re recruiting in a variety of ways.

According to Rust, new hires are going through the Sheriff Office Field Training Program, which helps them learn the facility and their duties. However, the biggest hurdle has been getting people interested in the job.

“When you’re dealing with the stress of the calls from the public, the dispatching of calls, and handling the inmates and making sure everybody’s safe and secure, it does take a person that’s you know able to fill those needs,” Rust said.

Rust said they currently have 22 employees being trained in communication duties and duties in the jail, and he’s hopeful they will be fully staffed when the new jail opens. Cross training allows the Sheriff’s Office to fill needs as they arise.

He said they’re offering employees an hourly wage of $21.75, and there’s a need for female officers.

“It can be challenging to find female employees that are interested in working a jail facility,” Rust said. “Because they would be monitoring not only the female inmates but male inmates as well.”

The new facility will be only the second jail in the state of Nebraska to house females. It will also allow Adams County to house all of their current inmates.

“Probably what we’ll do is start out the inmates in our current facility we have here and transfer them; and then we’ll start bringing back ones from other counties,” Rust said. “Currently we have the lowest amount of inmates in other counties that we’ve had for a long time.”

Adams County currently has 16 inmates in other counties, adding normally that number is around 20 to 30. He said importing inmates from other counties could take approximately two weeks.

The new jail will also allow them to house inmates from other counties.

“We normally run between 60 to 75 inmates for Adams County alone on a normal basis, and the capacity is 154,” Rust said. “So we’ll be able to house from other agencies, you know quite a few inmates.”

Rust said the county will now have a chance to create revenue by housing inmates from other counties.

Click here to subscribe to our KSNB Local4 daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.

Copyright 2023 KSNB. All rights reserved.