Raises for COs

State corrections officers quitting for better pay, ADC director warns
Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Review
by Ted Morris
March 13, 2006

SIERRA VISTA — It’s not a good thing when a prison’s inmates have more experience with the facility than their guards do.

But it’s an increasing reality, says Dora Schriro, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections.

“We’re losing staff like crazy,” Schriro told the Herald/Review recently while visiting Southern Arizona to rally the troops in Douglas. “Vacancies have gone up by 70 percent because salaries fall further and further behind.”

The main problem, Schriro explains, is that the state of Arizona has fallen behind in competitive pay packages.

The starting salary for a Pima County corrections officer is $33,636. The same position in the state system pays $29,014 after an across-the-board raise of $1,650 this month.

Schriro said state corrections officers are lagging from $2,200 to $4,700 behind county jails.

Even first-year corrections officers in Maricopa County earn more than state corrections officers: $31,179.

She also pointed out that the federal Bureau of Prisons is adding 200 corrections officers in Tucson to the tune of more than $38,703 for a starter.

U.S. Border Patrol agents can hire in at $34,996, according to careerbuilder.com.

“So they, too, are attracting our staff away,” Schriro said.

The result is that the Arizona Department of Corrrections’ (or ADC) senior officers are spending more time training new officers and filling positions that cannot be hired.

The increasing vacancy rate “has really got us in a tailspin,” Schriro said.

Overtime hours increased by 148 percent last year, and it will be a sharper increase next year if nothing is done, Schriro warned.

She is seeking a “one-time fix” — $39 million. With a fresh infusion of cash, which Schriro says is “absolutely available,” the exodus of fledgling corrections officers could be halted, overtime could be reduced and the ADC could get on a better recruitment-and-hiring footing.

The funds would also help the ADC address what Schriro calls “compression problems,” which includes issues such as a line officer earning more pay than a supervisor.

The $39 million’s key benefit would be in stemming the flow of overtime, which is projected to grow to $70 million in Fiscal Year 2007. That has mushroomed from $19 million spent on overtime in FY 2005.

“We’re on our way to spend $37 million in overtime this year,” Schriro said.

There are more than 33,700 felons incarcerated in the Arizona Department of Corrections. There are 4,892 corrections officers working in filled positions.

Department-wide there is a vacancy rate of 21.5 percent.

Tucson’s ADC prison, to which many corrections officers commute from Cochise County, has a 23 percent vacancy rate.

Schriro has pleaded her department’s case before the appropriations committees of the Arizona House and Senate.

“The good news is they haven’t turned us down,” Schriro said.