Last
year, state Regional Jail Authority Director Joe Delong told state lawmakers he
could cut his budget by hiring more correctional officers. The idea seemed
illogical, but Delong was adamant it would work because the jobs in the jail
system are unique.
“The
premise is to reduce mandatory overtime and by doing so reduce burnout,” Delong
said. “We are currently turning over our correctional officer staff at 50
percent annually.”
The
cost of the turnover is substantial. When one officer quits another is forced
into expensive overtime to fill the spot. The overworked officer soon gets
exhausted and leaves. The overtime pay coupled with the cost of training a
replacement is substantial.
However,
the increased staffing effort was implemented on a small scale at the Southern
Regional Jail in Raleigh County and full scale at Kanawha County
“In
the last six months we’ve been able to reduce mandatory overtime for
correctional officers by 32,000 hours,” he said. “That’s only really at one
jail because we’ve been unrolling this a little at a time.”
Delong
projects once the increased staffing levels are spread system wide the savings
will amount to about four Million dollars annually. He wants to use a portion
of the savings to support the program.
“We
would like to take a portion of that four Million, money we have captured
through efficiencies, and reinvest that into higher salaries in our staff,”
said Delong. “By doing business better and reinvesting that money in our staff
we can continue to create substantial savings.”
