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Alabama To Offer Pay Hike For Many Correctional Officers
June 28, 2018
A portion of a $30 million supplemental appropriation lawmakers added to the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) 2018 budget will give a boost in compensation for many correctional officers, state prison officials announced Wednesday. Correctional officers employed at maximum and medium security prisons will receive a location pay differential effective July 1.
“Our correctional officers and security staff are on the front lines every day keeping the public safe under oftentimes dangerous conditions and they deserve to be adequately compensated for their service,” said ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn.
Most security employees assigned to maximum security facilities will receive a four-step, or 10 percent pay differential while those employed at medium security facilities will receive a two-step, or 5 percent pay differential. The location pay differentials will apply to correctional officers, correctional officer trainees, correctional supervisors, canine security staff and wardens.
Dunn said for too long correctional officers have been undercompensated when you compare starting salaries with other state law enforcement agencies. He added that the location pay differentials are designed to attract and retain highly skilled correctional officers and staff at maximum and medium security facilities of which most have staffing levels below 50 percent.
Before the pay differentials, an entry-level correctional officer with a high school diploma earned $28,516.80 compared to the starting salary of $35,589.60 for a state trooper with the same requisite education. The differentials will increase an entry-level correctional officer’s effective rate of pay to $31,368.48 at maximum security prisons and $29,942.64 at medium security facilities, allowing ADOC to offer more competitive effective rates of pay when compared to other state law enforcement agencies.
The location pay differential incentive will help ADOC’s recruitment and retention initiatives for major correctional facilities, leading to higher staffing levels and safer prisons for both employees and inmates.
Comments
5 Responses to “Alabama To Offer Pay Hike For Many Correctional Officers”
Wow, that’s 13 whole dollars and 70 cents per hour. I bet they will have people standing in line for that. I know a lot of people that would love to spend 12 hours of their day and night, praying the person standing right next to them, won’t stab them with what ever they can get their hands on, or punch them, or choke them. Even though prisoner’s are confined for committing crimes like this on the streets, they probably never even think about hurting the person that’s charged with telling them no, for the first time in most of their lives. Honestly you can most likely earn just as much in standing in the welfare line. After all it is longer than any employment line.
It will be called Hazard Duty Pay.
This is just a ploy to get those officers to sit back and shut up. For years the Officers have publicly complained about the pay, violence and lack of leadership inside Alabama prisons. How do you stop that? Just give them a little more money. They have exhausted every other option. They didn’t want to give more money but it’s to the point now where they see it as a last resort. They are to the point of no return as far as staffing levels. I read on al.com a while back that a federal judge was making the department increase their pay. How pitiful is that? Your employees are not valued enough that you do it on your own but have to be forced. This will shut the employees up. Also, what about those not assigned to these prisons getting a pay increase? They just aren’t worth anything? Not even 3 percent? These officers have a very hard and stressful job. More stressful than a state trooper, police etc. They need to be payed!
Sometimes more isn’t that great. FL DOC officers got a raise but then discontinued a dental plan that actually payed for something, employees had to pay a higher premium on other plans almost double what they were & the employees have to pay, like 100-almost 138.00 for a couple cavities that the old plan would have cost them $16.00. The medical isn’t paying for what it used too. There has been a few times that where one place to go that was paid isn’t covered now, the patients just get a bill in the mail & they state well it is the patients responsibility to know where to go & what is going to be paid. They have changed alot of what is covered & what used to be covered.
These Officers deserve a lot more than this. The inmates in these facilities allow these Officers to maintain control of them. If you’re not quiet with me on this, please take a tour of one of the prisons. When an Officer is on the floor of one of the dorms by him/herself with lets just say 96 inmates which is probably very low, who do you think actually has control? I use the number [96] because that how many inmates the Esc’ Co’ Jail had in one pod years ago and I’m sure that hasn’t changed much. I can attest to the fact that many times in the 2 years I worked at the jail there was only 1 Officer at on the floor at lunch time with 96 inmates. I’m sure these prisons have occasions where they don’t have enough Officers to cover some type of activity at given times. If there is anyone out there that doesn’t believe any of these Officers at the prisons or jails deserve more pay, I asked that you stand in the middle of one of those overcrowded pods [65/120 inmates] for a straight 8/12 hour shift and let us know if you think they make enough money. So, the “Location Pay Differential Incentive” isn’t even a band-aid. Every Officer should be greatly insulted by the mere mention of it. You all stay safe.