“This feels like an emergency situation. It feels like we are in a crisis.”

That is the assessment of City Council Vice President Kristen N. Larson after she learned just how few deputies that Richmond Sheriff Antionette V. Irving now employs.

Speaking at council’s Public Safety Committee last week, the sheriff disclosed that of the 385 deputies she is authorized, she said just 215 secure the Richmond City Justice Center and fulfill other duties, such as providing courthouse security.

That is just 56 percent of her authorized strength, which some critics say is far too few.

Sheriff Irving confirmed she has 170 vacancies in the sworn ranks, up 10 from the 160 vacancies she reported last summer, with losses from retirements and resignations exceeding the hiring of replacements.

“It is still going in the wrong direction,” Sheriff Irving acknowledged.

She also reported 11 vacancies among the 100 civilians she is authorized.

Those deputies that remain are working longer shifts and mandatory overtime, the sheriff told the committee, to help her carry out her multiple duties, including housing prisoners.

Other work includes booking and releasing prisoners, providing security in the jail cafeteria and laundry and at the city’s three courthouses, transporting inmates to and from court, serving civil papers and managing evictions.

Despite advertising widely, Sheriff Irving said that filling the vacancies remains an ongoing challenge.

She said she is facing the same troubles as other law enforcement agencies in the city and elsewhere in trying to hire personnel.

The city’s Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response also reported being short-handed. The department told the committee that it currently has 28 vacancies among its 911 dispatchers or one-third of its authorized strength of 85 people.

However, the department currently has 11 people in training and will have another 12 undergoing training in April. It also noted that it has no shortage of applicants for positions.

The sheriff continues to struggle to add new people. She told the committee that her newest training class only has six members. For Ms. Larson, the shortfall in staff is raising concern about safety at the jail, which has reported five prisoner deaths in the past 12 months and also has seen a number of attacks on deputies and inmates.

“We’re here to be supportive,” Ms. Larson, 4th District, told the sheriff. “What can we do to help? We are here to be supportive. We want you to be safe. We want your employees to be safe. We want the inmates to be safe.”

The sheriff said that the best help the council could provide would be to boost her budget so she could raise deputy pay and potentially “attract more people.”

Deputies in training start at $48,000 a year, she said, with a pay raise after they complete the academy. That represents a substantial increase from several years ago, but she said pay for Richmond deputies still lags behind pay offered by Henrico and Chesterfield counties by several thousand dollars.

Eighth District Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, chair of the committee, agreed with Ms. Larson that the situation at the jail “looks like a crisis.”

Ms. Trammell has publicly but unsuccessfully called for a state investigation of the city jail’s operation due to the deaths and injuries to deputies.

The state oversight agency for local jails continues to give Sheriff Irving’s operation positive reviews. The agency’s 2021 audit of the city jail found full compliance with state standards.

Ms. Trammell asked the sheriff if she had reached out to the state secretary of public safety or other jails and agencies who might provide some personnel or take some of the prisoners.

Sheriff Irving, an independent elected official who is not accountable to council, said she has.

“We’re not just sitting there,” she said.

But she said other jails are not willing to accept most of the inmates the Richmond jail houses.

Of the 603 inmates the jail averages daily, she said only 52 are facing trial for or have been convicted of a misdemeanor, a lower level offense.

The remainder are mostly charged with or have been convicted of “violent felonies,” she said.

While other jails are willing to take the misdemeanors, “that would not really help,” Sheriff Irving said. Most sheriffs she has talked with, she said, are uninterested in housing the Richmonders charged with serious crimes.

She said the population of those charged or convicted of felonies includes 131 people who are eligible for transfer to state prisons. She said the Virginia Department of Corrections has its own shortfalls in space and personnel and has preferred to pay to keep them in the jail, for which the state reimburses $15 a day or just 10 percent of the actual cost.

“I wish I could hire 100 more people,” the sheriff said, but until that happens, she and her staff have no choice but to soldier on to maintain operations. “We can’t just put people on a bus and send them elsewhere,” she said.

In her view, morale is strong among those working at the jail.

“Our staff is proud of what we do, and they are making sacrifices to be there for their peers and partners” at the jail and at other venues.

Sheriff Irving said she has spread prisoners to additional cell blocks to reduce the potential for violence.

Despite the incidents that have occurred, Sheriff Irving said the goal of safety at the jail remains foremost. “There is no way that we want anything to happen to anyone’s child or parent or peer or sibling.”

But the shortage of deputies means “she cannot maintain minimum staffing,” said William J. Burnett, a Richmond police officer who ran the day-to-day operations at the jail under Sheriff Irving’s predecessor, C.T. Woody Jr.

He said Sheriff Woody needed at least 400 deputies to handle the full range of duties, with around 190 deputies detailed to provide round-the- clock security at the jail and allow for deputies to have time off, take vacations and have time with their families.

Another 80 deputies were needed to handle booking, transport and security in the cafeteria and laundry, said Mr. Burnett, who is gearing up for a second attempt to unseat Sheriff Irving in 2025 after losing to her in the 2021 Democratic primary.

“This situation can only get worse,” he said, “if she keeps losing people at the current pace. And that could easily happen. There is a limit to how much overtime people can work before they burn out.”