Rod Miller
Jim Hart, CCE, CJM
It’s a good time to be looking for a job in the United States, as the private and public sectors scramble to retain employees and find new ones. Finding and retaining jail staff has never been more challenging. Jail leaders report that staffing levels in many jails are dangerously low and see no relief in sight.
The COVID pandemic reduced occupancy for most jails, but COVID protocols required more inmate separation, increased screening requirements, and enhanced sanitation protocols and practices. Jails also saw a reduction in various operational procedures such as reduced court movement; reduction in intakes; increased use of video court proceedings; and reductions in onsite inmate programming. At the same time, COVID prompted many jail employees to leave.
On May 21, the American Jail Association (AJA) sponsored a half-day event to define current jail staffing challenges and to identify promising strategies and tools to increase new hires and retain current staff. “Staffing Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities” attracted jail officials from 12 agencies in eight states and one Indian tribe. Participants operated jails that ranged in size from a 34-bed rural jail to the largest jail system in the Nation.
This article is the first in a series that will focus on a range of staffing issues and solutions. It will set the stage by:
• Reporting on the findings from the workshop.
• Presenting insights offered by AJA members over the past three years using the iConnect. network.
• Identifying existing resources.
Participants in the May 21 session identified many concerns and emerging solutions.
Recruitment
• How to attract people to corrections.
• Hiring firms.
• Streamlining the hiring process.
• Finding more applicants.
• “Taking” trained staff [from other agencies].
Retention
• How to retain staff.
• Retention in general.
• Compensation:
• Pay raises.
• Pay incentives (not working).
• Pay challenges/other agencies.
• Keeping staff after they are eligible for retirement.
• Retention incentives.
Other concerns
• Staff call-ins.
• Employee morals and ethics.
• Employee and agency commitment.
• Staffing analysis methods and tools.
• Staffing resource management.
• Expanding the appropriate use of technology.
• Adapting facilities to changing inmate populations and needs.
Many of these concerns intersected with dozens of iConnect conversations over the past three years, as shown in the following excerpts from the iConnectposting.
Many users reported troubling levels of vacancies:
• Full staffing for detention deputies for us is 233. A few months ago we reached 100 job openings (43% vacancy rate).
• When fully staffed, we employ 42 Corrections Officers/Sworn Deputies. Current Vacancies are 4 Corrections Officers and 8 Sworn Deputies for a total of 12 openings. We were as low as 17 total a month ago (40% vacancy rate).
Several agencies were interested in the new Retention Specialist position in Davidson County, Tennessee:
… what Davidson County Sheriff’s Office (Tennessee) is doing to retain officers. We created the retention position two years ago. However, we continue to define and develop the position based on the needs of the agency and officers.
Many agencies reported a variety of financial incentives to attract new employees, keep current employees, reward staff for finding new applicants, and other positive steps forward.
“Cash bonuses for new employees hired as a Corrections Deputy ($3,225) or a Dispatcher ($3,150).”
“Cash ‘county bounty’ payment to a current employee who successfully recruits a qualified candidate that is hired for Road Patrol Deputy, Corrections Deputy, or Dispatcher. The County Bounty payment ranges from $1,251-$1,272.”
“Overtime temporarily increased from time and a half to double time for Road Patrol and Corrections Deputies, Dispatchers, and Fire Investigators who work overtime by filling shifts on Saturdays and Sundays. The temporary double-time was implemented for eight weeks…. to encourage more employees to volunteer for shifts on weekends to decrease mandatory forcing on Saturdays and Sundays.”
“We offer a $1500 sign-on bonus. Due to short staffing, we also paid double-time for hours worked after 40.”
“We are offering a $5,000 sign-on bonus paid over one year. We implemented a $2,500 referral bonus paid out in increments over a year if the new employee stays.”
“We give $1,200 every six months to correctional officers who continue to work for us and $1,000 to our supervisors and non-union staff as a retention bonus. We are using the federal ARPA money that the county received to fund this.”
“I put $5,500 in my budget to spend on officer retention.”
"Many of these concerns intersected with dozens of iConnect conversations over the past three years, as shown in the following excerpts from the iConnect posting."
“We implemented a schedule change that resulted in them working one shift less per month and then changed the pay scale so that they made a higher hourly rate while working fewer hours.”
“For hiring and recruitment bonuses if you recruit someone to join the agency, you get a bonus after they complete training.”
“We have hiring bonuses and incentives for bilingual speakers with a college degree, military service, and previous law enforcement experience.” “Our biggest source of candidates is the Florida Department of Corrections. Our starting pay is $13,000 more than the Florida DOC so that recruits for us (a bit).”
“…we have implemented a $10,000 signing bonus, a $3,000 referral fee, and a $2,000 relocation fee. We did this to compete with neighboring agencies.”
“The Sheriff’s Office offers a hiring incentive in the amount of $10,000 ($3,000 upon hire, $3,000 after completion of field/on-the-job training, and $4,000 after completion of 6th year of service). The department will award the cash incentive to any person who is hired for the position of Correctional Officer.”
“We are doing a $250 employee referral with no signing bonus. We have paid out over $2,000 so far with this program.”
“We raised all pay for detention deputies and corporals by $3.00 per hour for every step in the pay plan. This raised starting pay to $18.96 an hour making us the highest-paid detention facility in the area.”
“A few years ago, we went to step raises so staff members receive 5% raises a year and top out in 10 years if they stay in grade.”
“We started sign-on bonuses as well as other incentives a few years ago and that has made a big difference.”
Other creative recruiting and retention ideas were identified:
“So far, I have designed T-shirts for all staff, [and] bought them a propane grill that they can use. We plan on buying them meat at different intervals over the year so they can have special dinners.
We are looking at bringing in a food truck in the spring and any other ideas we can think of to show them appreciation.”
“We are starting up an employee advisory committee; we take a cross-section of each staffing level, to meet once a month to discuss issues or concerns and what improvements can be made.”
“When we have a longer-term staffing issue (generally due to COVID or FMLA), they will often work their extra day off as overtime and be able to work with their team instead of someone being called in from a different team. That was something that the staff asked to do when we implemented the schedule as they prefer to work with their own team if they must work overtime.”
“We have started having hiring events (fancy name for job fairs) where we try to get as much done in a day as we can so we can give them a start date to be hired within two weeks. We advertise on social media, Facebook, Indeed, LinkedIn, and with a local company that has those TVs in restaurants that roll thru ads for 10 seconds.”
“We shortened the application from 30 pages to 4 and made it fillable online. We did the attached flyer and used a QR code on it for people to scan to download the application.”
“We are also doing meals on shifts for those with perfect attendance for the month and things like that to try to improve morale.”
“We have been recruiting on Indeed and sending Deputies to job fairs around the state as well as advertising on social media, radio, billboards, and mass transit bus wraps. Our agency provides several instructors for our POST academy, and we also recruit out of there when there are cadets who are not yet hired.”
“We’ve advertised on social media, and local news and will have the state LEA advertise as well. Today, my building and grounds personnel and I hammered a HIRING sign into the front lawn of the jail, literally hammered.”
“We recently launched a recruitment committee that is gaining steam with outside-of-the-box ideas and ways to get the word out. Our biggest way we capture applicants has been through Facebook.”
Some participants posted opinions and advice:
“I agree…culture is a driving factor for much of what is going on now. Pay and benefits are a factor, absolutely, because they speak to feeling appreciated for the work that you do. But greater contributing factors are overall job satisfaction. Do the staff know why, “what they do” matters? Are they reminded often enough that they have an impact on other people? Do they feel anonymous within the organization? Staff members often report that they feel like ‘just another body to fill a duty post.’”
Overtime is not a good option, it just wears everyone down. Put checks and balances into your hiring process!! Don’t just hire bodies to fill spots, you’re doing more harm than you think. Even though we run short-staffed, we do it very well with those who want to come to work and who love this line of work! I’d rather run short-staffed than have to terminate unqualified staff for contraband issues just because they are looking for a job doing something. You have to want to work in Corrections to be a good Corrections Officer.
Supply and Demand.
An emerging approach to jail staffing uses a “supply and demand” perspective, where:
• Supply means—
• Providing the right people, at the right time, doing the right thing.
• Supply is provided by employees, contractors, interns, and even volunteers.
• Demand means—
• What must be done at a given time, or on a given shift.
• Tasks, duties, and responsibilities.
• Described in policies, procedures, and post orders.
Figure 1 illustrates the elements of supply and demand, and identifies the “gap” (shortfall) that often exists when demand exceeds supply.
Supply is measured by who shows up for a scheduled shift. The number and types on the ground who are expected to meet demands.
When demand exceeds supply, risk increases. Many agencies are finding it more difficult to balance supply and demand each day and on each shift, bringing more focus on:
• Counting the number and types of staff present at the beginning of the shift.
• Comparing supply to the demands for the shift.
• Reducing demand to match supply by suspending some activities or tasks during the shift.
Resources and Tools.
Many agencies use elements of the Jail Staffing Analysis methodology that was developed by the National Institute of Corrections in 1987. It has been updated several times. The Third Edition Jail Staffing Analysis[1] text describes nine steps in the process
The next article in this series will explore the supply and demand model in more detail and will identify specific tools and methods.
Endnote
Miller, Rod. James Hart, John Wetzel. Jail Staffing Analysis, Third Edition. 2016. CRS Inc. Gettysburg PA. Available at no cost at www.staffinganalysis.org.
Rod Miller has headed CRS Incorporated, a nonprofit organization, since 1972. He has co-authored many texts and articles on staffing analysis, standards, vulnerability assessment, case law, and jail work/industry programs.
Jim Hart is a Jail Management Consultant with the University of Tennessee’s County Technical Assistance Service where he provides technical assistance and training to counties in Tennessee on jail management and operational issues. Jim is a Past-President of the American Jail Association and is a Certified Jail Manager with the AJA and a Certified Corrections Executive with the ACA.