TRENTON, NJ - Mercer County corrections officers dismayed with what one labeled "intolerable" stress levels arising from understaffing and forced overtime at the county corrections center in Hopewell Township pressed their case again last night for more manpower.

"It's frustrating coming out meeting after meeting addressing the freeholder board on the same subject," said Lt. Marvin James, president of the county prison's superior officers association and a Trenton resident.

"We're trying to hold the fort but it's bad," James told the freeholders and county Executive Brian Hughes during last night's freeholder meeting.
James said he and other corrections officers aren't angry, just at their wit's end over a staffing situation that he labeled as inadequate and out of the officers' control.

"It's really an intolerable level of stress ... and frustration," he said.
"I'm the shift commander of the day shift and I have people who literally have to work five straight days of overtime," because of the manpower shortage, James said.

Hughes said his administration is taking the grievances very seriously, noting the county budget this year includes funds for 26 additional corrections officers.

"I think we all realize that it's a problem," Hughes said.

"We are moving quickly," he said. Replenishing the ranks of corrections officers "is a constant struggle. This is very very hard work. Not everyone is cut out for it."

Hughes noted that, for better or worse, there's not much the freeholder board can do to speed up the hiring process for corrections officers because it's not only a function of the executive branch but also strictly regulated by hiring lists that must follow the state's civil-service rules.

"I think the administration hears your desperate cries," Freeholder Vice Chairman Pasquale Colavita said. "We certainly as a freeholder board share your frustrations."

"As long as there is a (hiring) list to choose from, we cannot enact emergency (hiring) requests," Colavita said.

James and Freeholder Tony Mack said the working conditions at the corrections center undermine efforts to hire and retain officers.

"We've become a training ground for outside agencies ... because we never, ever have full staffing," Mack said.