Increase staffing at jail

Exactly what happened to Pradith Phousomthee in the Sedgwick County Jail may never be known. But Sheriff Jeff Easter should make it a high priority to increase staffing so that inmates in maximum-security areas can be checked more often.

As The Eagle’s Tim Potter reported, Phousomthee’s relatives believe the 55-year-old inmate had not been checked for at least four hours when he was found unresponsive in his bloody maximum-security cell about 11 p.m. Oct. 4. Officials concluded that Phousomthee died from a fall that broke a spinal bone at the base of his skull. Other inmates and a guard reportedly heard him banging on his door. Bloody footprints were found on the desk.

While overtime routinely is used to offset staffing shortages, jail policy was changed last summer to allow deputies to check on maximum-security inmates less frequently. Under current policy, rounds must be “reasonably spaced throughout the shift” and not more than two hours apart in maximum-security areas.

But Ken Kerle, former managing editor with the American Jail Association, said “you should be checking those pods every half hour” and two hours is “way too long.” In Texas jails, the minimum standard for checking on inmates is every 60 minutes.

Easter has said the issue is part of an ongoing internal review.

But a jail that needs 300 people to be fully staffed runs an unacceptable risk when it’s 67 short, as it was as recently as mid-October. It asks for more trouble by trying to manage the shortage by checking on inmates less often.

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published November 2, 2015 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Increase staffing at jail."