Ana Berta Hernandez started working as a jailer back in 1984 when things were very different. After 36 years of working there, she retired last month but still describes her job as exciting, although not for everyone.
Hernandez is the city jailer who held the position the longest, starting right out of high school, and said it was just by chance when she learned about the opening back in the 1980s.
“It was just by chance when I heard about the opening,” she said. “I was working early in high school, half a day and half school. After I graduated, I was able to get a summer job and worked half with Cameron County. During that time I worked as a local secretary, answering the phone, taking notes. I worked with the county, this was back in 1984. The city jail was barely opening, they were still trying to get people to work. It was still the police officers, still booking people at the county jail but they decided to open the city jail.”
After securing the job at the city jail, Hernandez remembers how sometimes in eight hours she would book up to 30 people. She also remembers how difficult it was to work during the weekends because back then, there were no weekend judges, making the process take longer.
“I remember in eight hours booking up to 30 people and during the early ’80s there was no weekend Judge, so we had to stay with the people that were booked,” she said. “So then, they realized that we needed to have a weekend judge.”
Hernandez said sometimes she thinks of the people she processed at the city jail and hopes they received the help they needed. She said there were times when she would receive people who needed to get special help but she could not do more than stay with them.
“We didn’t have a padded cell back then. So, we would have to hold people with the jackets and whatever we could. Ni modo,” she said.
“I remember one time I had to sit on top of a bucket, in front of a lady and she needed help. I had already called somebody to take her somewhere where she could get help, but I couldn’t do much more than just be with her. I hope she did OK, I never knew what happened to her. You never know what happens after, you just get people and screen them.”
Hernandez said she would regularly take fingerprints, mugshots, document tattoos, do paperwork and make sure everything was locked. She said she got to experience the transition from paper to computers and it was an amazing experience.
“Then computers became of age and oh man, that was something else. Because now we had computers, at first it was a big screen, then it turned orange and then it became more sophisticated,” she said. “Supposedly it was less paperwork, but not really, it was the same but now on the computer.”
A thing she loved seeing throughout the years, is the increasing number of female officers. She said although this job is not for everyone, it is the best job in the world.
“We needed females to take care of the females that were arrested,” she said. “I remember seeing a whole department of female officers and wow, it was amazing. You would get to see them when they’re young and they were in their 20s, then you would see them in their 30s getting married and then they would start wearing glasses and have gray hair. I was like, that was me, I was there, too. But you are in the best job of the whole world.”
