We're all aware that there's a serious staffing shortage at juvenile detention facilities. This includes Northampton County's Juvenile Justice Center. Over the past two years, NorCo Court Administrator Jermaine Greene has tried everything to fill the void, from creating assistant supervisor positions to increasing salaries to even hiring a private security firm. This staffing shortage extends to our jails and prisons as well. According to The Marshall Project, staffing at our nation's prisons has dropped 10% since the pandemic while jail populations have increased 2%. This increases the risk of assaults against officers and makes sleep-deprived officers more likely to use excessive force. What's the deal at Northampton County's jail?
Since he became Executive, Lamont McClure has hired or re-hired 376 corrections officers (COs). Five are in training right now. He's only been able to retain 27% of them.
This is a problem. The county jail should have 212 officers. It instead has about 150. Because it is a 24/7 operation, the county has no choice but to "mandate" officers to work 8 hours of overtime when other officers call off or have vacation days, which they must schedule a year in advance. As a result of this shortage, 14 COs were mandated to work a 16-hour shift on Monday.
Unfortunately, the way that the county imposes these mandates appears to be accelerating the staffing shortage, to say nothing of depressing morale. This must bother them even more when they walk by the jail administrators' parking lot on Friday afternoons and see it is empty.
I'll have more about mandates and how they are imposed tomorrow.
23 comments:
Worry less about your economic public relations events and more about the needs of the county. McClure has swept the staffing shortages under the rug for years. O'Hare you have covered for him. He is more concerned with upping his political posture for his future runs than dealing with the basic county needs. Little Trump, but not that little.
The mandates are “imposed” by virtue of the contract that was agreed to many, many years ago. The COs refuse to change how the mandates are “imposed.” The remedy for any violations of the contract are grievances and ultimately arbitration by a neutral, state/appointed arbitrator.
"Since he became Executive, Lamont McClure has hired or re-hired 376 corrections officers (COs)."
Re-hired? What caused them to leave in the first place?
The young guards are leaving because they can’t afford to pay the old guards the money they demand to cover their mandated shifts. The young guards have to do the mandates because that’s the way the contract reads. You know the concept of seniority. So, the old guards will cover the shift for $60 or $80 bucks. Used to be just “buy me breakfast.” Sad.
Thank you for continuing to discuss this Bernie, but if I could make one small correction, the 14 officers mandated on Monday was for just day shift into middle shift. I don't know the exact numbers, but there were more officers mandated from night shift into day shit, and from middle shift into night shift as well. The number for the entire day is somewhere between double and triple that 14.
I don’t understand this post. The COs all say the schedule is fine. So, if the schedule is fine, what’s the problem ? Work the mandates. Keep gouging the new hires. Laugh all the way to the bank.
The schedule is fine when the prison is properly staffed. The prison is currently operating at less than 75% staffing. If administration was able to implement ways to properly staff the place, this wouldn't be an issue. The schedule is not the issue, the failure to staff the prison is the issue. No schedule that admin has proposed actually solves the problem. The last proposal I saw removed mandatory overtime...by forcing the jail to operate under minimum staffing.
You got it all backwards. The young guards are demanding the cash. Old “senior” gaurds try to cover other officers shifts, usually as a favor.
Sure. Keep running the new hires off. You know, so the “state comes in.” You really should be ashamed of yourself, but you don’t have the capacity for it, do you ?
Bottom line is you have to have minimum staffing per shift. Most jails run the mandates by seniority. When you’re as low staffed as Northampton is it doesn’t really matter, you’re getting mandated a lot. They need to hire more, and pay more to attract decent people. It’s not rocket science.
Why are they hiring people from ny and nj with shady past should not be hiring half of the people who are there in the last three years but they have to fill the numbers pay more and get better people
Any other department with minimum staffing and mandates will tell you the exact same thing. Until we pay more and hire a better caliber of people, this will continue ad nauseam. Just ask NCSD/Youth Care/911, all the same...
Backwards. Newer Co's are making up for the low starting rate (too low to attract). Senior officers are paying what they ask for to get out and handle family / life. It was a win-win for both parties. It doesn't always pan out fairly because people started "shopping" for a higher bidder and the low bid got stuck working his/her mandate. It clearly upset a few on both sides of this equation. My logic would be to adapt the jail daily routines and block layouts to the current staffing levels and inmate population.
Is it the people from New York and New Jersey, who are “preying” on the new hires by charging them $60-80 bucks a shift to cover their mandates ?
I love this topic of changing schedule. If I remember correctly, we went over the new schedule and proved it wouldn't work. Our VP and shopstewert went to Hr and show how it wouldn't work and came back w/ jobs in HR. If you don't believe me just ask the labor relations person Mr Debor. I'm sure he remembers
The schedule IS perfect. The corrections officers uphold their end of the collective bargaining agreement, it is the county's administration who fails to act in kind. Part of the CBA is that the administration adequately staffs the prison. Their failure to do so is the cause of the mandates. "Just work the mandates," THEY DO WORK THE MANDATES. Let's be honest, no one WANTS to work 16 hours a day, be mandated into their days off, EVERY SINGLE DAY that they are scheduled to work. FOR MONTHS ON END. Why don't you apply there and then come back here to comment.
Luke Deboer, the SNAKE. Ah yes, violator of the Home Rule Charter. Shameless brown noser/boot licker.
If I had to offer a hypothesis, they are hiring from NJ and NY because it is hard to find anyone local who wants to work in the h3ll hole.
The simple fix is to change the schedule. The schedule has built in overtime in which the union leadership does not want to give up. They want to blame others for their greed.
October 11, 2024 at 8:44 PM / That's the stupidest comment yet again. What part of "changing the schedule won't help" didn't you understand?
Actually the new schedule would have mandated OT. State mandated training is needed and would now be OT rather then the overlap on wensday . Bottom line is you need more COs . 16oz is 16oz no mater how you pour it.
Things will get better. The “pigs” Will be stopped from “preying” on their co-workers. Mandates will be reduced and they’ll still be plenty of OT for pension padding.
Brian Dayoc has the respect and admiration of the CO’s. He’s smart, energetic and capable. No wonder these guys make so much money, they have great AFSCME representation !
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