JOBS: “The nation’s 1,800 government-run prisons are struggling with an acute staffing shortage that state officials say is fueling violence against corrections officers and worsening conditions for inmates.
Over two weeks in April, five guards were assaulted and one killed by inmates at two rural prisons in North Carolina, where roughly one out of six corrections officer positions is unfilled. In South Carolina, four inmates were strangled to death by other prisoners in April at a maximum-security prison, where officials say two officers were guarding a dorm with 140 inmates.
Nebraska, whose 10 prisons are at 160% capacity, has stepped up recruiting, but struggles to retain the people it hires. ‘They’re leaving faster than they’re coming in,’ said Doug Koebernick, the inspector general of corrections. ‘When you have a staffing crisis, they end up working overtime, they get tired, frustrated, and it’s a vicious cycle.’
Most of the nation’s inmates live in state-run prisons, but declining national unemployment—which hit a 16-year low in May—have made it harder for prisons to retain guards in jobs that commonly pay less than that of an hourly employee at Wal-Mart.”
-Valerie Bauerlein and Scott Calvert, “Nation’s Prisons Face Acute Staffing Shortage, Fueling Violence,” The Wall Street Journal online, June 2, 2017 10:46am