HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Former detention officers at the Harris County Jail are hoping for change to keep staff and inmates safe inside the jail’s walls.

Two former detainees sat down anonymously with ABC13 to discuss their observations during their years in prison.

They said what they were exposed to within these four walls was much more than they signed up for.

“The inmate was assaulted by another inmate, and I tried to take him out, and he became aggressive with me, and he spat blood in my eye,” said one of the former detention officers.

They said no one is safe from the violence. Prisoners assault prison guards and other prisoners.

“The prisoner cut his throat, just sitting there on the table playing a card game, and someone walks up behind him and just cuts his throat,” one of the men recalled. “Ears that are bitten off. It’s really bloody.”

ABC13 obtained video from inside the jail that showed prison guards assaulting other inmates besides inmates.

The former employees described blood, bruises and broken bones.

“There’s a certain level of violence that you expect in a place that’s full of people accused of violence. Do you think this exceeds what it should be?” reporter Mycah Hatfield asked one of the former officers.

“Definitely,” said one. “I feel that this is not how you feel talking to some people who work in different prisons.”

Not everyone in the Harris County Jail is charged with a violent crime. 86% have not been convicted of the crime they are behind bars for.

“It’s like if you’re on patrol as a deputy, it’s on the news,” one of the men said. “You see ‘officer injured’ or ‘officer shot,’ but in there it happens daily, and it’s not brought to the attention of the community like it should be.”

ABC13 requested numbers from the sheriff’s internal reporting system, the “Offender Management System.”

In 2023 alone, the figures show 1,180 assaults on staff, 4,081 assaults on inmates, 4,375 fights and 1,579 cases of non-consensual sexual encounters.

ABC13 also requested the number of charges filed for incidents at the jail. From early 2023 through October of this year, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office reported 71 charges, meaning less than 1% of violent encounters resulted in charges.

One of the jailers described the sheriff’s office mentality as “They’ve already been charged, so why try to charge them again?”

The former prison guards said the prisoners were sometimes disciplined internally by having their warden removed for a period.

Both former jailers put much of the blame for the violent atmosphere on low staffing, a known problem at the Harris County Jail.

ABC13 has spoken to employees who are working 16 hours a day, six days a week, due to staffing issues.

“It becomes dangerous when you have only one or two people walking the floor of more than 1,000 prisoners,” one man said. “You’re responsible for breaking up abuse and stuff.”

The prison was deemed noncompliant with state standards for two years. Only in August of this year did they get the thumbs up, but the state commission on prison standards noted in its approved report that the way the staff was structured did not technically meet the required ratio of 1 officer to 48 inmates.

In 2023, the county approved a 12% wage increase to spur hiring, but those we spoke to say it’s about more than just money.

“Now it’s the clock and we’re taking a risk of getting hurt, and that’s something we don’t want to do,” the former jailer said.

The sheriff’s office declined an interview with ABC13 about personnel and security issues. The office said the sheriff has talked about these issues in the past and is unsure what else they can add to the conversation.

In response to written questions, they said when an inmate commits a “serious assault” on an employee, they present the facts to the district attorney’s office for potential charges.

They also said, “In many cases, the inmate is already facing a potentially lengthy prison sentence if convicted of the charges that led to their incarceration in the first place.”

In terms of staffing, the detention center currently has 99 vacancies, the lowest they have had in years.

Figures from the sheriff’s office show they are improving staff retention.

In 2022, they recorded 411 detainees leaving the agency. In 2023 they lost 386 and 197 in 2024 on October 31.

“Nobody wants to work for a prison that doesn’t care about its employees, so it’s just a trickle-down effect,” the former employee said.

Both former detainees said they felt it was necessary to speak up for the officers still working at the prison. They said they wish sheriff’s management staff visited the jail more often to assess what was happening and determine needs.

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