Corrections department to graduate 18 officers, but hundreds of jobs remain open

Following a state shortage of correctional officers, the Department of Corrections will graduate 18 new corrections officers on Friday.

A campaign to fill 400 department vacancies was released this month. The campaign includes higher pay for veteran officers and bonuses for new hires.

“It’s critical that we fill the vacancies,” Department of Corrections Director Tommy Johnson said. “Otherwise, we have corrections officers working 16 and 24 hours and correction is not for everyone. It is a hard job, and so you don’t want to burn out the staff.”

The starting pay for a corrections officer beginning in July will be a little over $64,000 a year.

“We’re trying to increase the pay because the cost of living here is substantially high, and so that $64,250 a year is not enough,” Johnson said. “So that’s where we’re trying to return the step movements, and the hiring bonuses, and the retention pay. In general, I think the state needs to look at its pay scale for civil service across the board because we look at the cost of living here and look at the pay scales — they really don’t match up.”

This interview aired on The Conversation on June 20, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.