Before I get into details, I need to correct myself. I was critical of the negotiation team when I wrote about the arbitration award. This led some corrections officers to claim they had been sold out. I poured gasoline on that fire when I said, in comments, that the initial union proposal contained a demand that the personal vehicle of every corrections officer should receive a $200 detail allowance every year.
This was inaccurate. At no time did the union make such a demand. I learned this, not just from union representatives, but from the county. I had the corrections officers mixed up with another union. I hope this sets the record straight and apologize for the bum steer. After making that error, I was surprised that they wee still willing to speak with me, but they were.
I was shown a roster of 192 corrections officers. From #85 on down, it consists of officers with five years of experience or less. This means, of course, that turnover is high. One union official estimates that at least 100 officers have quit over the past year.
Part of the reason for this, everyone concedes, is that many corrections officers are waiting for something better to come along. Many of them want to be police officers, and leave as soon as there's an opening. Others are criminal justice graduates who can do better in another job.
Another problem is salary. Although Council member John Cusick complains that Northampton's benefits package is better and computed differently, younger officers are more interested in the money.
The starting salary for Northampton's guards is the second lowest in the state for third class counties, at least according to a union negotiator. He claims their goal was retention of junior officers, even though that meant some of them would see little or no raise
OK, so how about hiring older people? There's a PT test, and though it's ridiculously easy, many older people are unable to pass so they just skip the process.
How about hiring more? An academy of 12 starts today, but the county has scheduled no academies for the rest of the year.
This high turnover means overtime. Mandated overtime, too. At the time of my meeting, every officer working day shift had already been mandated 17 times. This does not include the two of overtime every Wednesday for state training.
To make matters worse, corrections officers are now often tasked with transports This traditionally has been a function of the Sheriffs office.But if there are more than two or three, corrections officers must move inmates from county to county.
This high turnover leads to corrections officers who have no seasoning, and this in turn leads to injuries. One officer who was involved with a violent inmate was required to take him down, but the junior officers who assisted did it wrong, with the result that everyone came crashing down on the more senior officer, causing an injury.
High turnover also means that corrections officers must clear vacations a year in advance.
While the overtime is nice in the short term, it becomes annoying if you have family obligations. One officer tells me that, in 13 years, she has spent three Christmases at home
To me, the solution is paying people more money. A lot more money. This would mean a happier workforce, less overtime, less injury and more seasoned officers.
Hopefully this will be addressed in the next round of contract negotiations.
40 comments:
let's talk about the people that's been mandated for the last 6 days straight this is inhumane but administration doesn't give a dame
why don't you write an article about how corrupt administration is I bet they will listen then!!!!
let's talk about how the Lt applies for a job in administration,5,6,7 times and keeps getting rejected because the good o boys are back
Here's the proublem we have 5 deputy warden which most of us dont know. we have one that feels that correction does not deserve a raise so the moral in this institution has hit rock bottom,clearly we have an issue instead of working with us.they work against us
I'm fairly new ,I've been here about 10 months. every time I put in for a vacation day it gets turned down I feel like I've been here 20 years I'm exhausted already!!!!I wont be here very long this place will kill you I see all these officers look like zombies
sooner or later someone going to the morning call
yes we have a big proublem with mandates.and yes we are extremely tired but it's more then that. I believe if our Lieutenant were in control,this institution would run differently we have great Lieutenant's
Sadly people are losing confidence in the McClure Admisntration. He won because Brown was a buffoon but McClure is not doing very well. He is known as an angry control freak who lives on retribution. He gets angry if any employees disagree with him. People are told to be silent. He holds county council in contempt and sees them as tools. Look at the game with the Probation officers.
He really needs to right the ship or he and his allies are one termers.
Faking work injuries and then lying to the doctor sensationalizing your work requirements for the purpose of remaining out of work; FMLA abuse protected by the Union; biggest reason of all, a schedule designed to meet the needs of a Jail half the size of the current one. The Jail Union has been complaining of staffing since 2005. The common denominator is their schedule, it just doesn’t work anymore.
The common denominator is shitty pay. And speaking of FMLA abuse, it is probably illegal to post suspected abuse cases on the internal web site for one and all employees to see. It ain't the schedule, it's the wages.
Changing schedules doesn't change hrs needed to run the jail. Still same amount of time however u sell it. We dont have enough staff. We have 130 overtimes per week before anyone calls off sick.
What Union negotiator would negotiate for a $200 detail allowance every year for their personal vehicle?
people are calling off because they can not use there vacation time .
"What Union negotiator would negotiate for a $200 detail allowance every year for their personal vehicle?"
A union representing a unit in which the employees are required to use their personal vehicles in the course of their employment.
Mclure leaves they all leave.
privatize it! Private jails are the thing- ask ICE
Why don't we just employ the prisoners as guards? It would give them something to do, build job skills, and allow the State to underpay them. Win-Win-Win.
Yes like trustee prisoner guards...we'll even give them keys.
Money is not the issue. Although the starting pay for officers does need to be looked at. The real issue here and I do have some background as I am a re-tired officer. The scheduling system there is pathetic to put it bluntly. Each shift is scheduled down to the bare bone so whenever you have a call of it creates a mandation situation. If the Union was really concerned about the overtime they would have agreed to re-work the schedule to allow a floater group of officers to work these empty shifts or a 12 hr shift schedule. Instead the money hungry union leaders don't want to give up the overtime which in turn screws the younger officers and in turn causes them to look elsewhere for work. You can't have it both ways. They want the overtime but not the Mandated shifts. The other issue is too many abuse sick time / Family leave in order to bypass working any extra shifts. The county needs to crack down on this. So, the real question is...Is the Jail really short staffed or are the shortages created from within the union body?
11:51am. You are stupid and have no clue what you are talking about. We had 950 overtimes in the last 2 months before anyone called off sick or fmla. We are at a point we can't put in for time off (vac. Or hol.) If we dont put them in the year before (oct./nov.) If we add buffers we get even less time off.
August 26, 2019 at 12:04 PM
Truth hurts?
yes it does
get rid of administration put our "Lieutenants" in charge and its smooth sailing they have the knowledge that's needed and let captain Collins! make decisions.
stop blaming the union.they do not respect our authority!
stop with the 12 hour shifts it's not going to happen.
We can start by discontinuing use of derogatory and hurtful terms like convict, criminal, and prisoner. Words hurt and stigma is real. These are justice system participants and they're people, too.
McClure must take control or hire a professional manager. The old guard loves all the overtime. How else do you think they end up making six figure pensions.
The guards and the Gracedale old staff are the wealthiest county pensioners around. They will never change unless you make item. Instead of having his asst Director following him around taking pictures and using the county website as a "Our Dear Leader" announcement propaganda machine, fix the problem.
Oh brother, it must be snowing somewhere.
Last time I checked, the jail only had 3 Deputy Wardens - who are the other two?
Just like the six figure pensions, they don't exist.
Lol have you experienced L.C. yet?
How about Captain hiring a bunch of people who belong nowhere near a prison except behind the bars themselves? And ask him if his hiring process is entirely legal with how he does background checks. Go back to spraying for bugs.
Well he did guarantee he would eliminate OT by the end of June. But when that fell flat he loudly proclaimed (in front of officers no less) that he would personally fix the FMLA, since that and sick time were solely to blame. Of course, when we need to fill 80 plus overtimes per week to start before a single call off is recorded, we all know that is BS. When you post a list of FMLA users and a separate list of suspected "abusers" on the county intranet for all to see, and without a shred of evidence, isn't that illegal, as BO mentioned? Aren't personnel matters confidential? And isn't that confidentiality broken when any County employee saw the list? Hmmm.
Instead of blaming administration for all of their troubles - why not take a step back and look at their fellow officers, as a whole? Each employee is put through the same testing as the ones before them - apply, tests, interview, MMPI, trainings... yet some officers still don't know right from wrong and that cannot be admin's fault - they passed all other levels to qualify for the job just the same as you and sometimes people are just morons. Its so much easier to point the finger at someone else for things you think are wrong but you never take a step back and look at yourself - are you helping the problem or adding to the problem? Each new administration brings on promises as they take their positions - always take it with a grain of salt instead of taking it to heart, duh. Also, taking away PT testing is ludacris - you should be able to maintain some level of fitness to work in a jail or does everyone want 300lb people "having their back" when needing to restrain an inmate?
Private jails are proven to be worse. More incidents, less training, and more escapes.
I’ve been working at NCP for well over 20 years and I can tell you for a fact, it’s the staffing levels. When the Towers were finished in 2006 our Union representation agreed with the Administration that the jail could be run with the same amount and no hiring was needed. We were all getting mandated 3-4 times per week for over a year and a half before they hired just barely enough to make a difference. If the pay isn’t increased to give new hires a reason to stay, then history will continue to repeat itself over and over again.
Unfortunately, if they increase the new hire’s pay, they must be fair and increase everyone’s pay respectfully which will never happen. Therefore, the vicious cycle will continue!
What’s really causing the overtime problem BEFORE call offs or FMLA’s is not the officer scheduling per se. It’s the training schedule that not only happens on Wednesday’s like it’s supposed to, but other days of the week when we are already at minimum.
A veteran officer once told me how ALL training ALWAYS happened on a Wednesday and if there wasn’t enough people to man the jail, they wouldn’t have training that day or if they did, it wasn’t a full class. It makes sense. If you’re going to mandate for training then that’s going to add to the numbers or overtime as well. It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul.
It's my understanding that this training is mandated by the State. Therefore, it has to happen no matter what. I would think that training would be important to the staff.
Yes, SOME of the training is required by the State and some is not. ALL of the scheduling is causing overtime to be paid!
Whether it required training or not, a training schedule can be set up that drastically reduces the overtime, including mandatory overtime!
Instead of paying overtime to 15-25 officers by changing their schedule or making them stay after work for 4-8 hours; adjust the one instructor’s hours to that specific shift! Then you’re only paying overtime to ONE OR TWO PEOPLE!!!
ALL TRAINING occurs during normal business hours. Why doesn’t the instructors go to 3rd shift and do training? Why does it all have to happen at West Easton and not the training house across the street?!
I feel whoever is scheduling the training is not doing a sufficient job and needs to re-examine or get creative on the scheduling practices. It’s not that difficult.
I believe that, contrary to what the county has provided, NorCo COs are underpaid. Union officials will be providing me the data. Also, I am offended to see COs smeared for taking vacations that are no greater than those afforded to other county employees. Finally, I have been told that the union never opposed a change to the schedule, but just had questions the county was unprepared to answer. Stay tuned.
Cant Wait.expose all of them how they cover shit up
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