| |
| |
|
|
R E S O L U T I O N
|
|
|
WHEREAS, National Correctional Officers and Employees Week |
|
|
is being observed from May 3 to 9, 2015, and this is a fitting |
|
|
opportunity to celebrate the dedication and hard work of the staff |
|
|
of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, President Ronald Reagan created National |
|
|
Correctional Officers Week in 1984, and two years later, Congress |
|
|
expanded the focus to honor both correctional officers and other |
|
|
vital employees of our nation's prisons and jails; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The seventh-largest jail system in the nation, the |
|
|
Dallas County Jail is staffed by 1,500 licensed detention officers |
|
|
and 200 clerks, and its facilities encompass five jails and a |
|
|
state-of-the-art, centralized medical and mental health unit; the |
|
|
system supports more than 85 law enforcement agencies in the Dallas |
|
|
County area, and it has passed inspection by the Texas Commission on |
|
|
Jail Standards for six years in a row; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Each year, 80,000 inmates are booked into the Dallas |
|
|
County Jail, which provides custodial care and control for |
|
|
approximately 6,000 inmates on any given day; the volume of work |
|
|
accomplished annually by the jail's detention service officers and |
|
|
employees includes the transporting of approximately 20,000 |
|
|
inmates for a total distance of about 1.5 million miles, the |
|
|
supervising of 400,000 sick calls and off-site appointments, and |
|
|
the dispensing of 5 million pills, as well as the serving of more |
|
|
than 9 million inmate meals and the washing of 3.4 million pounds of |
|
|
laundry; jail staff also process 100,000 criminal and civil court |
|
|
cases a year and more than 1.7 million pages of documents, such as |
|
|
police reports, fingerprint cards, medical forms, and jail records, |
|
|
every month; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Correctional officers and employees fill a |
|
|
demanding role in our society, simultaneously ensuring the safety |
|
|
of the public and the welfare of the inmates in their care, and they |
|
|
handle their often dangerous duties with courage, patience, and |
|
|
resourcefulness; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 84th Texas |
|
|
Legislature hereby honor the detention service officers and |
|
|
employees of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department on the occasion |
|
|
of National Correctional Officers and Employees Week and extend to |
|
|
them sincere best wishes for continued success in their important |
|
|
work. |