Debbie Carel never expected she would be working in law enforcement after retiring as a procurement officer with the Missouri Department of Social Services.
Carel has worked for the Cole County Sheriff's Department for eight years and serves as the chief deputy clerk in the jail division.
"My kids said they felt I should get back into the workforce, so I applied here and started working part-time in the civil division before I came down here," Carel said. "This was not on my radar. I was looking for a job and the qualifications fit."
Among the duties Carel and her staff perform are looking after the inmate accounts, billing for housing prisoners for other counties and help get visitation set up for families of the prisoners. They also help arrange for counselors and clergy to visit the prisoners, if needed.
Carel said the jail has been housing 160-170 prisoners in recent weeks.
"We house some prisoners for the U.S. Marshal's Service, but other than that, the majority of the inmates are being held for Cole County cases," Carel said.
She said this was a "real shocker for me," when she began working at the jail.
"People came up to our window and were asking about things I never heard of," Carel said. "It was a real eye opener. When they come here, they're just like you and I if we had someone incarcerated here you would want to know what's happening and what's going on."
While the job is interesting, Carel said, there are days it can get a bit overwhelming.
"You have many people come in and you feel so sorry for them," Carel said. "We give them what we can, but we don't know when they're going to go to court or will be released. We do what we can for them, but sometimes all we can do is give them a handkerchief."