West Virginia Seeks Correctional Officers

• {West Virginia}...John Lopez, the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority's chief of operations, says nearly all of the West Virginia correctional officers who quit this year cited grueling overtime in their decision to leave. Lopez says the constant turnover means the state is 105 correctional officers short of the 2,000 it needs to safely maintain the state's 10 jails, and, while finding officers is not the problem, the main challenge is retaining them. Officials say most correctional officers work about 20 hours of overtime each week, and it is not uncommon for them to complete the hiring process, including a background check and an aptitude test, only to quit within their first week.