Starke County Sheriff Bill Dulin has the blessing of the Starke County Commissioners to hire two additional full-time jail officers. First the county council must appropriate the money to do so. Indications are it will come from the tax money collected to pay for the jail project.
A staffing study commissioned by the county prior to construction of the new facility indicated additional hires would not be necessary. The commissioners noted that study did not take staffing levels at that time into consideration. Also when it was done there were only 38 inmates in the Starke County Jail, and the maximum capacity was 62. Dulin told the commissioners Tuesday he now has 68 inmates. The jail can accommodate 146 prisoners.
Starke County could be the first jail to house a Department of Correction inpatient drug treatment community, which would boost the inmate population considerably. If that happens, Dulin says money from that program would be used to hire additional staff. County officials recently visited a DOC therapeutic community at the prison in Westville. The DOC would provide staff for the local program and would cover the cost of inmate medical care.
