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| Indiana DOC Hoping Schedule Changes Will Cut Overtime |
| By Indianapolis Star |
| Published: 12/03/2001 |
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Faced with ongoing shortages of prison officers, the Department of Correction plans to experiment with having officers work 12-hour shifts but fewer days per week at some prisons. The pilot program is designed to cut back on the extensive overtime many corrections officers, now have to work. Indiana, like most states, is grappling with high turnover and vacancy rates among corrections officers. Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Pattison said the agency has 439 vacancies for its 3,840 corrections officer positions. Several Indiana prisons, including the State Prison in Michigan City, Westville Correctional Facility and Putnamville Correctional Facility, currently require officers to work overtime when they return from their days off. The department spent $36.5 million on overtime last year. 'The obvious answer is that they've just locked up so many people, and they haven't given the DOC enough money to operate the prisons,' said Francis 'Fuzz' LeMay, president of Unity Team Local 9212, which represents corrections officers. A temporary move to require officers at the Pendleton Correctional Facility to work four hours of overtime when they return from days off has drawn objections from the officers and their union. 'We believed that in looking at the overall picture, this was the best thing Pendleton can do until it begins the pilot program in January,' said Pattison. The pilot program would go into effect next year at six state prisons -- Pendleton and five others still to be determined. Officers at those prisons would work three 12-hour days one week and four 12-hour days the next. The proposal, modeled after a work schedule used for many years in Virginia, is being negotiated with the union. Pattison said departmental staffers are preparing a videotape that will be shown to officers at the participating prisons to prepare them for the 12-hour shifts. She acknowledged that the new work schedule might cause problems for some officers, especially those having to arrange childcare. 'What the department is hoping is that this will eliminate the need for as much overtime as we currently experience,' she said. 'What happens now is that we have so much overtime that it takes away from their lives, their families.' |
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