Oklahoma Suffering From Officer Shortage

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – State prison workers in Oklahoma are asking lawmakers to provide funding to fill open positions that are creating unsafe conditions at understaffed facilities. There is currently a 23-percent vacancy rate among corrections officer positions at state prisons.

About 300 employees work at the maximum-security prison in McAlester, which is authorized for about 400 positions. At Joseph Harp, a medium-security facility, some shifts have had only 13 officers guarding 1,140 inmates, 300 of whom suffer from mental problems.

Correctional officers say low pay has been a recruiting deterrent. The salary for starting officers in Okalahoma is about $20,600 a year.

Gov. Brad Henry and members of the Senate’s Democratic majority have called for a special session during the legislature's summer recess to address the problem, but the Republican House Speaker Todd Hiett expressed doubts about the need to reconvene before the next session begins in February.

Hiett says his plan to offer a $1,000 signing bonus to new correctional officers would avoid the need for a special session. Funding for the plan would come from money saved from the staff vacancies, he says.

The union representing Oklahoma prison guards says the plan would help, but there is not enough money in the system to fund all of the necessary positions. Recent racially motivated violence at state prisons could also prove to be a deterrent for potential employees, union officials say.

The state Senate has devised a $20.5 million plan that would allow 150 correctional officers and 54 probation officers to be hired. Under the plan, 450 correctional officers would eventually be hired.