Orange County’s first class of correctional services assistants is due to graduate Tuesday.
The correctional services assistants, also known as CSAs, are part of a plan by Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens to bring down jail costs.
Right now, sheriff’s deputies spend up to eight years in the county’s jails before they’re transferred to patrol duty. Hutchens says using CSAs in the jails will be cheaper and will allow deputies to hit the streets quicker.
Ultimately, Hutchens says the correctional officers will save the department $10 million a year when the program is fully up-and-running.
They will help sworn deputies monitor inmates and control people coming and going from the jails.
The first graduating class is made up of only 23 men and women. The sheriff wants correctional services assistants eventually to make up 35 percent of the jail staff.
