Hennepin County Sheriff says they were forced to cut valuable programs due to understaffing

The Hennepin County Sheriff says they've had to cut valuable jail enrichment programs due to continued staffing issues within the department.

Sheriff Dawanna Witt telling WCCO's Adam and Jordana at the Minnesota State Fair they're down dozens of licensed deputies and detention deputies, all while trying to assist other departments.

"The asks are not stopping," Sheriff Witt says. "I mean, we are consistently, even in the city of Minneapolis, the amount of things that we are doing everywhere to back up or even to take some of those initial calls."

Witt says they've had to get creative with the staff they do have available but says she is disappointed they've had to cut programs she deems important.

"The impact of, of those, it's huge," Witt says. "Specially like if we're talking about the jail, the programs that you've seen when we've had to cancel programs for the people in our custody because security has always got to be, first. I don't want to be that sheriff taking away programs. I wanna keep pushing them."

Witt says recruiting is a top priority. The starting annual salary for a Hennepin County Sheriff's Deputy is between $80,000 and $104,000.