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State must lock in raises for stressed prison guards
Our view: Overtime and risks escalate as units fight to retain corrections officers
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.05.2006
Arizona Daily star

Imagine how hard your job would be if a quarter of your colleagues decided to take jobs with a competitor and your company had trouble hiring replacements.

No doubt things would get tougher for those left behind. Everyone would have to work longer hours, overtime shifts would become common and stress levels would rise.

Corrections officers who work for the state don't have to imagine that scenario. They live it every day.

The Legislature must recognize the seriousness of this problem and provide more funding so that the state can offer competitive salaries to recruit and retain more corrections officers.

The problem of understaffing at state prisons came to light again Monday when a guard at the Arizona State Prison Complex on South Wilmot Road was held hostage by an inmate for six hours. The situation ended peacefully and nobody was hurt.

The Santa Rita Unit, where the standoff occurred, needs a minimum of 24 guards during the swing shift to cover critical posts, but only 23 officers were working when corrections officer Laurel Kennedy was taken hostage, according to Department of Corrections spokesman Bart Graves.

The unit is authorized to have 42 guards, but 14 positions, or 33 percent, are vacant.

Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro said Wednesday that hostage situations can happen even when prisons are fully staffed, of course, but they are much less likely when more guards are around.

"The staff are doing their best to hang on and hoping that the Legislature responds favorably to the governor's (funding) request," Schriro said.

In the meantime, hanging on is taking its toll.

Of the 23 officers who were working in the Santa Rita unit Monday afternoon, eight, including Kennedy, were working overtime. Kennedy was near the start of what was to be a 16-hour double shift.

Graves said corrections officers are averaging about 16 hours a week of overtime.

"They're very tired of this," he said. "The money is good, but that wears off because you realize you have no life. If you have children it's even tougher."

The constant overtime turns corrections officers, in essense, into another set of inmates.

A Star editorial on March 19 pointed out the need for corrections officers to receive better pay. Monday's hostage situation highlights what can happen when the system and its people are stretched.

The department is authorized to have 6,231 corrections officers statewide, but 1,351, or 22 percent, of those positions are vacant, Graves said. The vacancy rate at the Tucson complex is 23 percent.

The problem, as Schriro sees it, comes down to attracting and retaining corrections officers with competitive salaries. Starting pay for state prison guards is $29,014, but Pima County starts its guards at nearly $35,000 and the federal Bureau of Prisons, which has a facility in Tucson and another one being built, offers $41,000, Graves said.

It's no wonder people are leaving the state and going to other agencies where they'll receive better pay and won't have to work as hard.
Gov. Janet Napolitano's budget request for prisons includes bringing the starting salaries for state corrections officers to $34,650.

That's still below what some agencies are offering, but we agree with Schriro that the pay boost would help the state attract and keep more guards. We urge the Legislature to approve Napolitano's funding request for the prison system.

Monday's hostage situation ended well, but the next crisis may not have a good resolution if something isn't done to ease the pressure on corrections officers.

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