With understaffing a longtime problem at the Ramsey County jail, county commissioners on Tuesday approved hiring an additional 32 workers.

The move came in response to recommendations from an independent staffing study commissioned by the county. The commissioners voted unanimously to authorize the county manager to transfer up to $1 million from the county’s general contingency account to this year’s sheriff’s office operating budget for the jail to begin hiring immediately.

Last year, the jail incurred nearly $2.7 million in overtime costs, accounting for about 65 percent of all sheriff’s office overtime expenditures. Overtime costs this year were projected to remain at similar levels, but the addition of staff is intended to reduce it.

Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong asked Sheriff Bob Fletcher why overtime increased by about 250 percent from 2019 to 2025, though the jail’s average daily population was lower.

Fletcher said the primary driver of overtime came after a 2023 directive from the Minnesota Department of Corrections, which licenses county jails, telling the sheriff’s office, “We want you to operate in a safer fashion with additional staff.”

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher speaks during a news conference in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Fletcher raised concerns to the county board in September 2022 about understaffing at the jail.

At the beginning of 2023, the DOC ordered the jail to submit a plan for how it would reduce capacity after a DOC investigation revealed staffing shortages led to delayed or denied medical treatment of inmates.

The sheriff submitted a plan to the DOC at the time to reduce the number of detainees by about 60, by sending them to other facilities, to address staffing shortages.

The county board settled several lawsuits involving the jail last year, including $3.6 million to settle a family’s lawsuit after a 37-year-old man with hemophilia died in the jail in 2022, and more than $700,000 to two men who alleged mistreatment.

Medical, mental health challenges

The jail’s population “continues to include more individuals with medical and mental health challenges,” the Matrix Consulting Group staffing report said. That includes the affects of chemical dependency on people entering the jail, Fletcher said.

Ramsey County Commissioner Tara Jebens-Singh (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners)

“Our facility doesn’t really lend itself to addressing mental health” because there isn’t an outdoor space and not a lot of recreation space inside, for example. “We should talk about that in the future,” Fletcher said to the commissioners.

Commissioner Tara Jebens-Singh noted the staffing study calls for additional employees in “some specific positions that would address the managing of some of these complex needs.” Fletcher said his office supports the recommendations, “but we’re also cognizant of the cost of implementing some of those.”

The jail in St. Paul, officially called the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center, holds people after they’re arrested and before a court disposition is reached, along with people arrested on warrants or for probation violations. About 20,000 people go through the jail each year.

As of Tuesday, the jail’s population was 415, with 44 of them housed at the Ramsey County workhouse due to the jail’s operational capacity of 414 people.

Tax levy increase estimated at 0.75%

Of the 32 employees the county board authorized hiring, 23 will be correctional officers and one a community service officer working in the jail.

The staffing study recommended creating positions for another eight correctional officers, which are not funded in the budget but were approved by the board. They are intended to “provide flexibility to recruit ahead of anticipated retirements and attrition, helping to maintain appropriate staffing over time,” said County Manager Ling Becker.

Ling Becker, Ramsey County Manager, talks about the county’s $320 million economic development plan during a news conference in St. Paul on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The jail previously was authorized for staffing 144 correctional officers, plus 21 supervisory positions, Fletcher said.

Correctional officers “are the backbone to a safe jail operation,” Becker said. “They provide direct supervision of individuals in custody, conduct required security checks, respond to emergencies, facilitate medical and behavioral health services, transport individuals to court. … Without sufficient staffing, the county must rely heavily on overtime to safely perform these essential functions.”

The ongoing cost of the additional positions is estimated to increase the 2027 property tax levy by 0.75 percent, Becker said. The 2026-2027 biennial budget includes a 7.5 percent increase for 2027, though the board of commissioners has not yet finalized it.

“The recommendations reflect responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources because we’ve included clear performance expectations for the sheriff’s office,” Becker said. That includes the sheriff’s office reducing overtime costs by approximately $900,000 to $1 million in the fourth quarter of this year, “with additional reductions anticipated in 2027 and beyond as staffing levels stabilize,” the county manager said.

Impact on overtime

The sheriff’s office plans to begin hiring in September and be at full staffing capacity by the start of next year, Fletcher said.

Ramsey County Commissioner Rena Moran. (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners)

Commissioner Rena Moran asked Fletcher how confident he is that the sheriff’s office won’t be back next year “with a significant amount of overtime.”

There are other parts of the staffing study that haven’t yet been discussed with the county board, Fletcher responded.

“Regarding the jail, I’m confident that we can reduce the jail overtime very significantly,” he said. “There will always be some type of overtime, which is probably consistent with what has been budgeted. But the other third of the overtime is not on the table here today, and we’ll need to have some conversations about that.”

The sheriff’s office annual budget was $76 million in 2025 and $86 million this year, according to the county.