Smith County receives award for high school officer recruitment

TYLER – Smith County has won a 2024 County Best Practices award from the Texas Association of Counties for their program to recruit jail detention officers from local schools according to our news partner KETK. The county said their Detention Officer Program is the first of it’s kind in the state. The program was started to help address recruitment issues at the Smith County Jail by getting interested high school students to take the state jailer exam after they graduate.

The program was started by Smith County Sheriff’s Office chiefs Jimmy Jackson and Gary Pinkerton. The program has reportedly been a success since Smith County has reported that they’ve gone from having over 20 vacancies for several years, to having zero openings in 2024. One jail officer that was hired right after graduating from John Tyler High School is Justtice Taylor, 19 of Tyler. She, Pinkerton and Jackson have been recruiting at local schools including at her alma mater.

“After years of struggling with recruiting and retention in staffing detention officers, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office teamed up with the Tyler ISD Career and Technology Center to offer a Basic County Corrections Course to students in high school. Since starting the program a year ago, Smith County has four detention officers working full-time while taking college courses after graduating high school.”
Smith County

Smith County said that Jackson and Pinkerton have been contacted by several other counties from across the state that are interested in recruiting their own high schoolers in similar programs.

“Having somebody young to get out there and talk to people her age has made a big change,” Pinkerton said. “It also shows the positive of what hard work and dedication can do.”
Front row, from left: Smith County Sheriff’s Training Lt. Aimee Crockett, Detention Officers Jada Staples, Sierra Hernandez, Justtice Taylor and Mikayli Mata. Back row, from left: Commissioners Terry Phillips and Pam Frederick, County Judge Neal …

“I never thought I’d start my career at 18,”Taylor said. “I want to help other young people believe that it is possible to reach their goals of going to school and working full-time, if they have the right mentality.”

On Friday, Taylor and fellow detention officer, William Morrow, met with students at Lindale High School’s Career Day.