Like many states during the recession that followed the banking crisis of 2007, Alabama was forced to make budget cuts for many of its departments, including its correctional system. During fiscal year 2011 to 2013, as reported by AL.com, the state slashed more than $12.6 million in salaries. Coupled with cuts in recruitment and retention programs, this has led to the state’s prison staffing levels dropping to 61 percent of their prescribed strength.
Despite this, the state only managed to save slightly more than $6 million in payroll savings over the same period. It turns out that, in increasing numbers, Alabama is seeing its existing staff make up the required man-hours in overtime. In just one prison — Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison specializing in repeat offenders — the state paid, on average, about $8,873 in overtime per employee last year, 14 percent of the total $20.8 million in overtime the Alabama Department of Corrections paid that year.
Considering the state of Alabama increased its prison spending from $173.5 million to $373.5 million from 2000 to 2012, it is perhaps shocking to see that the state relies so heavily on overtime to keep its prisons staffed. For some prison staffers, the amount of overtime they receive exceeds their base pay.
This phenomenon is not limited to Alabama, and it is creating a situation in which the safety within the nation’s prisons are at a critical low. Low wages, a lack of specialized skills and diminishing benefits are reasons why fewer candidates are considering correctional work. A cycle is emerging in which existing staffers are forced to work longer hours under greater stress, while the need for new guards and prison staff who would accept less pay is prompting many states to consider candidates who wouldn’t otherwise be considered.
“When you’re short staffed, the short staff leads to additional turnover because people are being held over [on extended shifts], you get caught in this cycle where you really need somebody in there, and can you afford to wait and do the types of reviews and spend the type of time to find somebody that you’re very confident this is a career for them and not just a job or paycheck?” Matt Taylor of the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts.
In January, the department released the results of a statewide audit that found that pay was behind the high rate of turnover within the Georgia correctional system. Replacing these staff members is costing the state tens of millions of dollars, wiping out any savings the budget cuts may have yielded.
The importance of manpower
In practical terms, the manpower shortage and reliance on overtime are contributing to a situation at many prisons in which one guard may be asked to guard many offenders without adequate backup or support. In 2013, a federal prison guard was attacked and beaten by an inmate at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, Washington. The guard had been charged with unlocking all of the cells in the 100-plus male housing unit by himself. The attack only stopped when two other inmates intervened.
Currently, the nation’s federal and state prison systems are operating beyond their capacity. Alabama leads the nation in overcrowded prisons, with its correctional housing capacity being at 196 percent as of 2010. With at least six other states having overcapacities of 25 percent or more — Illinois has a rate of 144 percent of maximum capacity, while California has declared a “state of emergency” in regards to its capacity issues — and with a total of 19 states housing prisoners beyond capacity, it appears that the nation’s heavy-handed approach to drug convictions has created a situation in which the system can no longer adequately handle the influx of convictions.
“It’s like asking a surgeon to work overtime,” Jess Maghan, director of the Forum for Comparative Correction, told MintPress News of the workload carried by prison staffers. “There’s truth in the saying, ‘We shape our buildings, and afterwards, our buildings shape us.’ There’s nowhere where that is more true than in a prison. The prisoners may come and go, but the guards may stay for 20 or 30 years. So, these guards are living in an envelope of stress.”
“This is an environmental issue that goes beyond the pay of the officers. It is a question that goes to the heart of the matter concerning the safety of the prisoners and the guards.”
Employee investment
The overtime question may ultimately be a question of employee investment. In hiring a new officer, the government must pay to train the new employee — a process that could take as long as 16 weeks — and invest in a new benefits package for the new hire. In purely economic terms, the incurrence of these “pay additions” may exceed the employee’s pay, so it would make sense to pay an existing worker what would have gone to a new worker, as it would avoid the “pay additions.” In situations in which the payroll budget is already stretched to its limit, this offers a tempting solution to a difficult problem.
“I think that’s what’s driving the overtime pay scale. And it’s actually cheaper to use overtime than hiring a full-time employee,” said Alabama state Sen. Cam Ward. “The benefits package is what kills you.”
This solution, however, dismisses a key consideration. For example, AL.com’s reporting on the use of overtime in Alabama showed that the staffers with the most overtime were likely to have been disciplined for rules violations, with several being suspended or dismissed. The state’s second-highest overtime earner, Leroy Jamison Jr., retired in 2002 during an investigation into possible misconduct. Despite being recommended against doing so, the state re-hired him in November 2004.
“The commonly held belief is that it reaches a point, particularly in stressful jobs — including all law enforcement positions and healthcare positions — where a range of things happens,” said Richard Greene, the president of the public policy firm Barrett & Greene. “You become too worn out to do the job you’re asked to do. You make inadvertent mistakes.”
A ticking timebomb
An excessive amount of overtime may lead to sleep deprivation, mental and emotional fatigue, burnout and time spent away from family and friends. This can lead to a loss of focus, an inability to cope with or manage anger or frustration, and a lack of ability to stave off depression or confusion.
“I think working too many hours can cause fatigue,” said John Violanti, a research professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “The health of corrections officers is not great. … High fatigue can cause a lot of errors on the job.”
Ultimately, staff cuts cannot reduce payroll budgeting. As prisons require a minimum level of staffing, any cuts in staffing levels or payroll budgeting must be made up with the existing staff working harder, which will increase burnout and employee staff. The only way to make true payroll cuts is to decrease the demand on labor — close prisons.
With overcrowding already at critical levels, that is unlikely to happen and with the number of controls in the prison system being wicked away by budget consideration, the danger of the nation’s prison system collapsing from the mounting stress only grows.