How many are there? - As near as I can tell, there are 180-190 corrections officers. According to what former Corrections Director Dan Keen ultimately conceded, there should be 233. That means there's a shortage of 43-53 officers. In the past six years, there has only been one occasion when the County had 200 officers. This was almost matched recently, when for a brief period, there were 196 officers.
How about those training classes? - I told you that 12 officers had graduated. I was mistaken. There were only 11 graduates. The class started with 16 officers, and five dropped out during training. I am told this kind of attrition is typical.
What the starting salary? - A corrections officer makes only $16.40 per hour. In Lehigh County, it's $19.31, almost $3 per hour more.
What is the turnover? - According to a union source, about 30% of the new corrections officers leave within the first year
What is the impact of salary compression? - A corrections officer told me that in his beginning years, when step increases were awarded as guards gained seniority, he turned down jobs at the Easton and Reading Police Departments. He would be taking a paycut. Today, officers leave for vacancies on police departments because they make little more money at the jail than when they were first hired.
How many sick days do corrections officers get? - I incorrectly stated in a comment on Tuesday that they get three. Actually they get 12 sick days and three occurrences. I do not understand what occurrences are.
Can mandated officers get takeout? - Officers are reluctant to eat food prepared at the jail, even though it's free, because they believe that inmates will contaminate it. On Tuesday, I said the county should have a runner for food orders. The county does allow officers to order takeout, but there is no staff to send a runner.
Do officers develop medical issues at the jail? - They do. They work on a hard slate floor, as well as concrete. Most males eventually need knee replacements. There are three female guards who have cancer, and many need hysterectomies. Whether this is related to their work environment is unknown. Both males and females experience a high number of staph and MRSA infections.
How do you solve this problem without costing too much money? - County corrections officers need to be treated fairly, but so do county taxpayers. One solution that could work is to actually lower the starting pay, but introduce mandatory step increases based on seniority. A corrections officer will not object to a low starting salary if he knows he can make a living wage in five to seven years.
Feel free to correct me if I have any facts wrong. Also, if you have insights that I missed, please share them.
9 comments:
Inmates run the asylum. CO's deserve more money. Pay is a joke regardless Lehigh or Northampton County. Step increases needed. No I'm not a guard. Maybe we need prisoners to remember why they are in jail to begin with, instead of all the perks they get while incarcerated. Prison reform. Only my idea is different. But, let's let them vote and....
Waaaa waaaa was. Cry babies I uniform. Ckose the prison and nice them to Nazareth....... Open borders and close the prison and the jungle will cleanse itself
Lower starting salary -- Pretty soon we will be paying to work for the County. Oh that's right, most of us pay to work in the City because of Scomillio.
A lower starting wage isn't the answer. We need fewer COs who make considerably more money for a nasty job. How? Stop locking up so many people and shrink facilities to be smaller and smarter.
I know this isn’t the right place to post this comment but I hope you see it anyway....
Your name was invoked by Courtney Robinson in last nights Allentown city Council meeting. During the courtesy of the floor, Don Ringer confronted Mr. Robinson on his unpaid rent payments from years ago and also unpaid parking tickets from this year. It actually got quite contentious for a minute and when he went back to his seat a police officer had to make sure he stayed in line by moving in his direction. When Mr. Robinson defended himself and explained about why he had unpaid bills and rent payments, at the end he said that Bernie O’Hare has been out to get him for years as well. You can go online to watch this for yourself if you want. I just wanted to pass that along.
Robinson has just given me another chance to explain why a spendthrift like him should have no place deciding on a city budget.
Your name came up about the 12 minute mark of the meeting just as his remarks were ending and right before your other friend, Ken Heffenfarter started speaking . He said something to the effect that you have been trying to blast him for three years. Actually if you stay tune for a few more seconds, Heffenfarter made a comment that actually was pretty funny lol
Seems like the Mc Clown administration doesn’t have a clue. This is what happens when you fill positions with incompetent morons.
2 minutes if fame for Bernie !
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