KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Former Wyandotte County Jail employees claim a jail controversy cost them their jobs.

Tamara Jefferies, a former jail supervisor, worked for the jail for 10 years and was fired in December.

Jefferies said she saw deputies abusing inmates on a daily basis, and she said when she reported it, it was covered up or ignored.

Last spring, Jefferies' former boss, Wyandotte County Jail Administrator Randal Henderson, claimed he was also wrongly fired for speaking out.

Jefferies also said the jail is overcrowded and serious offenders are sent to a minimum security facility.

Representatives of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, and the Wyandotte County Sheriff's Department declined to comment, saying it would be in appropriate to do so because the matters were in litigation.