Jail administrator looking to ‘kick back’

Article Tools Print This Page | Comments(0) | Suggest a Story

By Ron Maloney - The Gazette-Enterprise

Published: 05/01/2009

SEGUIN — The top desk at the Guadalupe County Adult Detention Center — the county jail — is being cleaned out today.
Frank Schull, the administrator of the Guadalupe County Jail, said he’d decided it was time to step back.
He will spend a little more time with his wife Gloria, with whom he’s shared 60 years and who came to a special retirement ceremony conducted Tuesday at Commissioner’s Court.
“I’ve been kicking around jails for 21 years,” Schull said. “It’s time to turn the next batch loose and let them make whatever adjustments need to be made and put their own mark on it.”
Zwicke said he would work to name a replacement for Schull shortly — and that the person who takes the position has a pretty big job to fill.
“It’s certainly a sad day for us at the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office,” Zwicke told commissioners in a special ceremony called to honor Schull Tuesday.
Schull, who had worked as a consultant and for companies that managed correctional facilities, came to Guadalupe County at the behest of former Jail Administrator Debra Jordan, who Schull had gotten to know when both worked at the Bexar County Jail.
The “new” jail was then being built, and it was considerably larger than the previous facility.
“I said, ‘Debra, can I help you a little bit with the setup going into the new jail?’” Schull recalled. “She said she’d appreciate it very much, and she brought me in and sold me to the sheriff.”
It probably wasn’t quite that simple.
Zwicke interviewed the soft-spoken Schull in 2001 when he was looking for someone to run the jail kitchen and commissary.
The sheriff remembered telling Schull that a lot would be expected of him and that whether he would have a job the following year would depend on how well he did the job.
“I told Frank if he was unable to save us more than we were paying him, we’d probably discontinue the program after one year,” Zwicke said.
Schull did what Zwicke asked and kept the job.
It might have looked like magic, but Schull insists that it wasn’t.
Schull said he thought they would need a couple of years to get systems in place and get the facility to run the way it needed to, and he saw definite savings that could be realized.
The kitchen and commissary are important aspects of running a jail.
Schull, with his background which included work in the food service, support and hospitality industries, had no problem.
He knew that the jail kitchen was being operated by someone not fully familiar with corrections and with managing commodities and a 2,900 calorie inmate diet.
Before long, Schull’s kitchen was putting out three meals a day for what it had previously cost the county to serve one — and Schull began turning heads, not just in the sheriff’s office, but in county government.
And Zwicke started noticing in staff meetings that Schull could apply his brand of management and problem-solving to the entire operation — not just his part of it.
“In our meetings, Frank saved us even more money,” Zwicke recalled to commissioners. “In staff meetings, he could point out potential problems in the jail that were outside his area of responsibility and make suggestions for correcting them. I came to appreciate his input and his judgement and recognize him as a team player.”
Schull promised Jordan he’d work here for two years and then retire again — it was to be his third and last retirement.
But at about that time, another opening came up at the jail.
“I have an ego, and I said, ‘I can do this,’” Schull recalled.
Zwicke recognized that Schull could do more for the organization as a whole, and named him assistant jail administrator.
In 2006, Zwicke decided Schull was ready for the top post at the jail — in spite of the reservations of some officers who wondered whether a man who had never walked the floor as a jailer should run an entire facility.
Zwicke said he had no doubt, and Schull got the job.
Management principles, Schull feels, can be applied in any field of endeavor.
“The first thing is putting good people in place, training them and listening to them,” Schull said. “The same principles apply whether you’re working for Marriott or for U.S. Steel.”
The sheriff’s office instituted a strong training program to teach corrections officers what they need to know.
“You don’t walk in, hand them a set of keys and say, ‘Go do this,’” Schull said. “I’ve been blessed in this job and I’ve been lucky that we have great people working here. I’ve had an awful lot of support from the officers here at the jail, from the sheriff and from the other county officials. I’ve had an awful lot of help.”
The jail has been recognized by the state in a long string of “perfect” grades in jail inspections.
But in a business where the customer is never right and where managers aren’t generally known for their customer service skills, Schull’s facility has gotten endorsements from a surprising group — some of the inmates themselves.
“We get them here from other jails, and when it’s time to go back to other jails, they say they would rather stay here,” Kinsey said.
And truth be told, Schull, who is approaching age 79, likes the facility — and the sheriff — himself. Read more.

If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source.

Comments:

No comments have been posted for this article.

Login to let us know what you think

MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search