Repairs underway on Nacogdoches County Jail

NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) - Ongoing roof repairs at the Nacogdoches County jail are underway and have forced the county to move inmates to another county.

Tuesday, county commissioners approved a pay supplement for Nacogdoches County jailers who are traveling and staying outside the county during this project.

At the end of February, it was found that the Nacogdoches County jail had leaks in its roof. County commissioners approved emergency work to be done to fix the issue in two of the jail dormitories.

Sheriff Jason Bridges says 22 inmates were removed from the area and transported to an unused facility in Gregg County while roof repairs are being made. Today county commissioners approved a $50 daily pay supplement for jailers who are having to stay in Gregg County to watch over those inmates.

“Our jailers are out of town, they are having to spend the night there obviously, they are having to live at a motel so basically this is just additional pay for them for the inconvenience of having to stay in motels and be away from their families and children,” Bridges said.

Bridges says four jailers are in Gregg County at a time.

“They are going to stay down there a week and then they rotate that with other people to come in. Every night that they actually spend the night in a motel room away from their families they get an additional $50 dollars,” Bridges said.

The sheriff says the roof repairs were expected to take around a month to complete and that timeline is still on track.

“Right now, they are working on top of the roof to stop all the leaks, we’re probably looking at the middle of next week before the roof repairs are totally complete. At some point they are going to come in and start working on the ceiling in the dorms,” Bridges said.

For the time being inmates in those dorms will stay at the Marvin A. Smith facility in Gregg County until the work to the roof is complete.

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