BROWNSVILLE – Jailers working at the Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center will soon take home a few more dollars in their pocket.

County commissioners approved the yearly budget this week and it included $1,500 pay raises for some 300 jailers.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino said it will help bump their pay to $30,000 a year. Although the county can’t compete with state and federal jobs, he said it’s a small start in the efforts to help retain the officers they train.

“We knew we were having such a huge turnover with regards to our jailers, approximately 100 per year,” he said. “We invest money in their initial training and to have them last with us, you know, less than a year or two years and continue to be turning that over was something that we wanted to address.”

The county also approved to include the hiring of two more sheriff deputies to help transport inmates and mental health workers for the jail.

The pay raise, for current and future jailers, goes into effect on Oct. 1.