State government’s attention to the shortage of jail and prison correction officers feels like a wash, rinse, repeat cycle.
Legislators and state Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation commissioner William Marshal rehashed the ongoing crisis during a legislative interim committee meeting Sunday.
There are over 1,000 vacancies. The vacancy rate averages 27%, but it is over 40% at eight facilities and 70% at the Eastern Regional Jail. Over 300 National Guard members continue temporarily filling in. Corrections cannot find people to fill the positions. The turnover rate is astronomical.
Stop me if you have heard this before.
Everyone — and by everyone, I mean legislators, the governor, corrections officials, overworked guards and staff — all agree that the situation is not sustainable, yet it continues. That is because there is no agreement on how to fix it.
The House Jails and Prisons Committee approved a significant pay boost during the regular session earlier this year — a $6,000 hiring and retention bonus combined with a pay raise of $10,000 over three years. A Senate bill would have provided up to an additional $10,000 in locality pay.
They both failed.
There are calls for a special session to work on the issue again, but Gov. Justice is not going to do that until lawmakers agree on a plan first. Of course, Justice could also take the lead on this and push as hard for a solution as he did on his tax cut.
In fairness, corrections must do its part, too. The tight labor market means the agency must engage in more aggressive and creative recruiting. For example, some of the National Guard members currently filling in are volunteers who are probably interested in full-time employment. Go ahead and hire them.
Commissioner Marshall told lawmakers Sunday that the state of emergency in the jail system declared last August will need to continue. Even a special session to improve salaries won’t be a quick fix.
“I can’t imagine that if we get some kind of pay raise that would take effect next fiscal year — I can’t see that we would hire 350 (individuals) that quickly between now and August,” Marshall said.
The most important news that came out of Sunday’s meeting was that it again drew attention to the corrections crisis. And, again, there is talk of possible solutions, but nothing concrete. How many times must it be said that the current situation is untenable?
Justice and lawmakers were able to overcome deep-seated differences during the regular session to approve a historic tax cut. Problems at jails and prisons are not nearly as relevant to the public as taxes, but they are issues nonetheless that we should reasonably expect our elected leaders to solve.
