Rod Miller
The last issue of American Jails presented the first jail staffing article focused on a range of staffing issues and solutions, setting the stage by:
• Reporting on the findings from a workshop conducted in Long Beach.
• Presenting insights offered by AJA members over the past three years using the iConnect. network.
• Identifying existing resources.
Supply and Demand.
An emerging approach to jail staffing uses a “supply and demand” perspective, where:
• Supplyrequires delivering the right people at the right times to meet demand. Supply is delivered by employees, contractors, interns, volunteers, and others who meet demand.
• Demand refers to what must be done at a given time, or during shifts. These tasks, duties, and responsibilities are described in policies, procedures, and post orders.
Figure 1 illustrates the elements of supply and demand and identifies the “gap” (shortfall) that exists when demand exceeds supply.
For the purposes of this article, “supply” is measured on the ground by identifying who shows up for a scheduled shift or event. It is measured by identifying hours supplied by non-agency employees, contractors, interns, volunteers, and other sources. This article further broadens the definition of supply and provides examples of creative strategies.
Figure 1 Supply, Demand, and Shortfall (Gap)
Using the Staffing Analysis Process and Tools.
Many agencies use elements of the Jail Staffing Analysis methodology initially developed by the National Institute of Corrections1 in 1987, and regularly updated since then. The Third Edition Jail Staffing Analysis2 text, developed with NIC funding, describes nine steps in the process (Figure 2).
Each step in the staffing analysis process has supply and demand implications. Figure 3 suggests supply and demand insights for each step.
Current Staffing Culture.
Some jail managers attempt to balance supply and demand by:
1. Suspending some activities or tasks during the shift. [Change if it is done.]
2. Changing how tasks are implemented during the shift.
3. Changing who implements tasks when there are not enough uniformed officers.
4. Changing when things are done.
These actions sometimes conflict with the culture and traditions of jail staff, who historically bring a “get ‘er done” attitude to their work. They resolve to get “everything done” on a shift, even when staffing resources fall short. This attitude is commendable, but on the ground, it often results in increased risk.
Without sufficient staffing, getting everything done often results in shortcuts, tasks are not fully implemented, and further erosion of the expectations that guide daily operations. Well-intentioned staff efforts to do everything usual decrease safety and security for all parties, and increase risk.
During the first staffing analysis team meeting for the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Detention Facility, the team identified a wide range of changes in the “context” in which staffing occurs. One detention officer expressed concern about the number of duties and tasks added to Post Orders over the past several years. She told her colleagues, “I hope you don’t think we are getting everything in the Post Orders done on each shift. We’re lucky to get half done.” This set the stage for reviewing the time it takes to implement tasks described in Post Orders.
Some agencies are assigning the highest priority to safety and security, proposing that “if it can’t be done safely, don’t do it,” rather than a well-intentioned attempt to get everything done.
What followed was a discussion of the gradual increase in tasks and duties that are added to Post Orders, without consideration of the cumulative impact on officer demand. The staffing analysis process provided a good means of rethinking operations and staffing demands.
Shifting Work from Agency Staff to Other Entities.
Supply may be increased by shifting tasks and duties currently implemented by agency staff, to another unit of local government, a private contractor, or another external provider.
Replacing hours currently worked by jail staff with hours delivered by another organization, contractor, or entity effectively increases supply.
Suicide watches pose staffing challenges for many jails, but some jails have shifted the burden of these watches from uniformed staff to other entities.
When Bernalillo County, New Mexico, updated the staffing analysis for the Metropolitan Detention Center, they continued to use the NIC methodology. The staffing team and consultants collected and analyzed data that included hours needed to provide one-on-one inmate supervision, usually for incarcerated individuals who are a suicide risk. The data showed that over 27,000 hours of one-on-one supervision were used in the previous year. Detention officers were providing these watches, but the task did not require a uniformed employee. The team decided to assign suicide watches to their medical contractor, reducing demand for officer time by 27,000 hours (the equivalent of 16 full time officers.)
Bernalillo County analyzed detailed data for the preceding year, calculating total hours, but more importantly, describing the demand patterns. Figure 4 presents the MDC data and analysis. The graph illustrates the average number of hours used, by shift and day of the week. Dividing the average by eight (the length of a shift), officials found that the average number of staff needed to supervise one-on-ones rarely fell below three officers per shift, on any day of the week.
The pattern of demand was just as important as the total hours expended. When MDC officials asked their medical contractor to provide this supervision, the contractor had a clear understanding of the scope and demand patterns. This made it easier for the contractor to estimate the costs and the scheduling pattern for their new duties.
Figure 3 Staffing Analysis Process in Terms of Staffing Supply and Demand
Figure 4 One-on-One Suicide Watch Data, Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC)
Many jails use officers to provide suicide watches for incarcerated individuals. Although staff sometimes appreciate the overtime, officer time is an increasingly scarce resource that needs to be closely managed. Many jails are so understaffed that whenever a task may be implemented by another source the alternate source is used.
Bernalillo County also identified additional resources to staff suicide watches, such as college interns, part-time retired persons, and volunteers.
Using incarcerated individuals, the New York City Department of Corrections uses trained “incarcerated individual peer suicide prevention aides” to provide coverage. The aides are paid for the work. Several states used incarcerated aides, including Florida, South Carolina, Michigan, and Kansas. The Federal Bureau of Prisons also use carefully selected incarcerated individuals for this purpose.
Staffing hospital posts consumed twice as many officer hours compared to suicide watches in Bernalillo County, as suggested in Figure 5.
Over 54,000 officer hours were used for hospital posts at MDC, the equivalent of more than 32 full-time equivalent (FTE) officers. The staffing study recommended using alternative staffing sources in hospitals, such as contracting with a private sector security firm. Counties in Central Pennsylvania are forming coalitions to address staffing of hospital posts and inmate transportation. They are considering a wide range of potential providers.
Figure 6 builds on the basic supply/demand diagram, identifying additional supply provided by entities not employed by the jail.
Figure 6A Adding Supply Using Not Employed by the Jail
Using Non-Uniformed Staff Rather Than Officers.
The use of non-uniformed jail staff has gradually increased over the years. This practice is accelerating as officer hours are becoming scarcer:
• Monroe County, Michigan considered using a civilian in master control as a last resort, rather than taking an officer off the floor.
• Many jails assign administrative and record-keeping tasks to civilians, allowing officers to spend more time working with incarcerated individuals.
• Technology is providing more options to streamline record-keeping, scheduling, timekeeping, and other administrative activities, freeing officers and supervisors to work with incarcerated individuals.
• Marion County, Indiana (Indianapolis) traditionally used uniformed officers in its records division. While that was the county’s preferred staffing, civilians gradually replaced officers.
• Bernalillo County decided to post a uniformed supervisor in central control at all times, but additional staffing was provided by trained civilians. This reduced demand for officers by nearly 10 FTEs.
Finding Tasks to Assign to Civilians.
Many jails take a hard look at officer tasks and duties, looking for opportunities to shift more to civilian employees. This digs deeper than looking at posts that could be transferred; it looks at the specific tasks that comprise the duties of officer posts and positions.
The jail staffing analysis process facilitates creative thinking in Step Three, Drafting the Coverage Plan. Coverage is added in half-hour increments, producing a more precise demand pattern. From this, scheduling configurations may be refined to efficiently deliver needed hours.
The California Job Analysis: Adult Corrections Officer, Juvenile Corrections Officer, and Probation Officer (California Board of Community Corrections, 2015) identified 611 specific tasks that comprised the job of a county correctional officer. Over 40% of the 611 tasks could be implemented by non-uniformed personnel. Even more would be eligible based on the jail design. Minor renovations to some existing jails would also increase opportunities to use non-uniformed staff.
The job analysis compared task criticality and frequency to a similar study that was conducted in 2002. This identified hundreds of tasks that had increased in “importance” or “frequency” between 2002 and 2014. Many of these tasks were appropriate for implementation by non-uniformed staff. Opportunities to divert job tasks to non-uniformed employees increased during the 12-year period. Figure 6 presents a small excerpt from the list of tasks that significantly increased in 2014.
The next article in this series will identify many more opportunities to increase total supply without adding jail employees.
Endnotes
1. NIC commissioned the First Edition in 1987, asking the authors to create a credible process that could be implemented by local officials. At the time, the scope, depth, and process for a “jail staffing analysis” depended on the consultant hired to generate the analysis. The First Edition introduced new methods that compelled users to step back and look and changes in the jail context, catalog and evaluate the full range of activities that occur in a typical week, and develop a detailed coverage plan, in half hour increments, from scratch. Subsequent steps evaluated the draft coverage plan, provided a new and more detailed methodology for converting relieved coverage hours into Full Time Equivalent Employees (FTEs) in the budget, and prompted users to developed efficient schedule configurations that effectively and efficiently implement coverage needs.
2. Miller, Rod. Hart, James. Wetzel, John. Jail Staffing Analysis, Third Edition. 2016. CRS Inc. Gettysburg PA. Available at no cost at www.staffinganalysis.org.
Figure 6B Excerpt from Job Analysis: Adult Corrections Officers, California Board of Community Corrections, 2015. Tasks That Increased in Frequency and/or Importance
Rod Miller has headed CRS Incorporated, a nonprofit organization, since 1972. He has authored many texts and articles on staffing analysis, standards, vulnerability assessment, case law, and jail work/industry programs. Alongside Jim Hart and John Wetzel, he co-authored Jail Staffing Analysis, 3rd Edition, 2016, funded by the National Institute of Corrections. Additionally, staffing analysis resources are available at no cost at www.staffinganalysis.com.For more information, contact Miller at rodcmiller@gmail.com.