The retirement of Elwood Dehaven after 32 years of service to the Harford County Sheriff's Office leaves a vacancy that Sheriff L. Jesse Bane says he is in no hurry to fill, that of warden for the county jail.

Warden is one of those iconic posts in American lore. Plenty of images from Hollywood central casting come to mind when the title is raised, but the reality of such jobs is generally far from the movie images we sometimes have of them.

Technically speaking, the sheriff's plan is to put a deputy with the rank of major, Maj. Michael Capasso, in charge of the Harford County Detention Center. He's already in charge of the agency's corrections bureau. The sheriff also makes the point that the jail had been the only bureau in the sheriff's office previously not run by a sworn deputy of high rank, and this change eliminates a layer of management, resulting in financial savings.

It is a good thing, of course, that the sheriff seems to be saving a few dollars, presumably to be used to put more deputies on the street, but there are a few harsh realities that must be kept in mind.

The jail has a rather thorny clientele, comprised of people charged with some very serious crimes awaiting trial and others convicted of substantially lesser offenses doing time measured in months rather than years. On the whole, this is a crowd not easily managed.

Another harsh reality of corrections institutions is the ever-present danger that some on the jail staff, given the anti-social disposition of many of those in their charge, could end up losing sight of the importance of running a safe, clean and humane institution. When this happens, not only do we end up being weaker for it as a society, but also the financial cost generally ends up being substantial when wronged inmates are able to successfully seek damages from the county.

In addition to the general complication of running a jail is the matter in Harford County that the detention center is newly expanded, and the challenges of managing it will only increase.

In reality, it makes little difference if the jail has a warden or a manager who goes by some other name. What is important, however, is that no one at the sheriff's office lose sight of the importance of making sure the jail is well-run, and its staff well-managed.