"Give me the right staff and I can run a good prison in an old red barn." Austin McCormick, founder of the Correctional Education Association, once made this statement and many in corrections believe it still holds true.

But one of the biggest challenges facing jail and prison administrators today is finding and keeping the right staff.

"If you don't make wise investments in hiring and choosing people, then the money instantly goes down the drain. [According to research in the field] it costs you 50 percent of their annual salary to hire again. By the time you advertise, put them in academy, and hook them up with on-the-job training, then five months are gone," said David Parrish, Commander of the Detention Department of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Tampa, Florida.

Parrish and others in the field believe that corrections agencies have to make the job more attractive and professionalize it in order to attract the right candidates and to compete with the higher salaries of law enforcement positions -- which many COs flock to after only a few years in corrections.

In Hillsborough County, for example, Parrish said there are numerous reasons why people are drawn to law enforcement. Street deputies earn 13.9 percent higher salaries, they are assigned a car that they take home with them and then, Parish said, there are the specifics of the job.

"Where would you like to work? In [one] job you have the individual freedom to move about the county and respond to calls, meet different people, have an opportunity to take a break for a meal at a restaurant... versus a detention deputy [position], where you are responsible for people who have already shown they can't abide by society's rules," said Parrish, who acknowledges that law enforcement deputies have added risk in their jobs by putting their lives on the line each day.

Beyond this dilemma, the shrinking potential candidate pool is another obstacle.

According to Leslie LeMaster, Correctional Program Specialist for the National Institute of Corrections, candidates for corrections positions are no longer knocking on the doors of jails and prisons.

"The workforce in general is smaller now. We are looking for a specific type of person  and it's harder than ever to find them," she said.

LeMaster said agencies that have been successful in finding good employees who want to stay in the field are those who have gone beyond the traditional "passive" candidate searches in newspapers. Instead they have partnered with community colleges and other institutions to find people who have a passion for the business.

"They get them to work part-time and get a look at them to see if they want to move them in. They are recruiting students who have a passion in our arena," she said.

LeMaster said agencies are also realizing that the best recruiters are often their high-performing employees, who are now being sent to university and community job fairs to find potential candidates.

One agency that turned its recruiting tactics around 360 degrees was the Montgomery County, Md., Department of Correction, which in a few short years went from a shortage of officers to recruiting and filling more than 100 positions for the existing jail and a new jail that opened last year with a full staff.

Montgomery County Shifts Focus

When Montgomery County Department of Correction Director Art Wallenstein came on board four years ago he realized that several positions within the department had gone unfilled, so he looked deeper into the department's recruitment efforts. With a new jail projected to open, he decided to make wholesale change in how the department sought out new staff.

With no scandals in the department and pay at market rates, Wallenstein determined that the problem was with the recruiting and not aspects of the detention jobs.

"The hiring process was simply one dimensional. It became a driving force within the agency to handle current vacancies and fill 100 positions for a new jail. We kept the pressure on everyone that recruitment was number one," said Wallenstein.

In turning recruiting efforts around, Wallenstein made several changes. They included:

*Providing the chief recruiter with additional tools to assist him in his job such as a status report on vacancies every week.
*Training a team of line staff to attend job fairs.
*Cataloging every job fair within 50 miles.
*Designing a proper banner and exhibit booth for use in job fairs and community events.
*Providing a county-approved $1,000 bonus to be paid to staff for recruiting if the department hired a CO or community health nurse.
*Adding a language stipend of $1,700 per year for any language spoken in ESL classes in the Montgomery County public school system. "It opened greater diversity recruitment for us," he said.
*Meeting with many representatives of the Hispanic and Asian American communities, organizations and media outlets for advertising and for translating job ads into Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. "We wanted applicants, and their parents or relatives to see we were interested in recruiting in their communities," Wallenstein said.
*Running ads in military publications for persons being discharged from active duty.
*Designing a coupon for a coupon mail package that went out to thousands of homes in specifically targeted areas. "We received well over 100 responses," he said.
*Working with the department's psychological testing service and medical service to speed applicant evaluations to prevent losing applicants to other jobs.
*And, increasing testing from twice a year to testing eight times a year.

According to E. Bernard Woodard, Recruiter/Human Resources for Montgomery County Department of Corrections, the changes to the application process alone have increased the number of applicants that can be processed.

"It takes generally six to eight weeks to process, but with medical and psychological evaluations, we began to schedule things simultaneously so we were processing during the background phase. And, many psychological test results you can use in your background investigation. By doing them simultaneously, it reduced the time," he said.

Woodard said this team approach to recruiting has helped the department select the best candidates possible.

But in addition to bringing the right employees in, which was Maryland's focus, agencies also have to figure out how to keep them.

To do this is an exercise in professionalizing the corrections field, ensuring that supervisors and managers are trained appropriately and understanding what staff really want and need to be high performing.

Retention Improvements

In response partly to a recognized shortage of staff and a 2001 Texas State Auditor's report of recruitment and retention issues, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has recently made major strides in improving retention.

One of the elements of that improvement plan was a change in the "career ladder" for new COs.

"I think a lot of the [challenge] has to do with perceived professionalism. We expanded our career path to an eight-year career ladder that in and of itself reiterates the profession of corrections. It allows you incremental salary advances," said Carol Blair Johnston, Director of Human Resources for the TDCJ.

According to Johnston, the previous "ladder" had five steps, which was expanded to six with the addition of a title -- Correctional Officer 4. The department then expanded the ladder again and added a CO 5 position; it now it takes eight full years to progress through the CO career ladder.

What that meant to staff was an increase in CO salaries from a previous high of $26,724 to a high of $31,068 in 2001 with eight satisfactory years of service.

"Those seasoned officers are recognized by their title and their uniform with the seniority [and a special badge]. I think that for organizations to recognize the COs through career ladder advancement is an additional way to recognize it in the profession," said Johnston.

Another move toward professionalizing the position was the expansion of pre-service training for COs from 160 hours to 200 with the addition of more defensive tactics training. In addition, the TDCJ began requiring on-the-job training and certification in core competencies. As part of this process, new COs are now assigned mentors who serve as a liaison between the academy and the unit assignment.

Smaller institutions are also trying to improve the perception of corrections as a way to increase the number of applicants for deputy or officer positions.

In the Washoe County, Nev., Sheriff's Office, administrators are beginning to focus on the types of individuals applying to become detention officers. According to Eric Radli, Detention Captain for the sheriff's office, typically the department hires Category 1 deputies, which are those who are trained to fill either a corrections or law enforcement deputy position. Those officers stay in corrections with the hope and desire to move into law enforcement - and they typically do within a few years.

"What we're finding is we need to, in a way, look at a different type of individual to hire -- one who might be more willing to wait [before going into law enforcement]," said Radli.

Radli said his department is considering hiring more Category 3 deputies - those who are trained only for corrections - with the idea that they will build a career in the field rather than use it as a stepping-stone.

"We're in the process of promoting more corrections-oriented training. We're trying to instill more esprit de corps. If we build a desire in the staff to stay and better the agency, they will carry [that on]," he said. "We have to instill in our troops that they are the future of the agency."

Other corrections agencies are planning more concrete additions to the benefits package they present to employees as an enticement to stay. In Hillsborough County, Fla., for example, plans are underway to build a daycare center with extended hours near the two jails so that employees can have their children at a facility nearby.

According to Parrish, the county plans to go out to bid in a few months for the construction of a childcare center for 75 children that will be three miles from the county's Orient Road Jail and next door to its Falkenburg Jail.

"You won't be able to see it, but the jail is right there," said Parrish, who added that the project has been six years in the making.

According to Parrish, when the center is operational, the county will pay for the building's utilities, but the childcare center itself will be operated by a private vendor.

"We've gotten a lot of ideas about day care centers. What will happen is the employees will be able to buy a block of hours so they are not penalized for being later than they planned [in picking up their children]," he said.

The center will be modeled after those that some hospitals provide for their employees, he added.

Jail officials helped secure county government support for the center by funding its construction through the state's Criminal Alien Assistance program. Jail administration worked with the program to set aside just under $2 million for the building.

"Everyone is most anxious for it," said Parrish, who is hopeful that the project will go forward as planned.

Projects like this can go a long way toward keeping employees on the job, but other agencies, such as the TDCJ have looked even further into its staff selection processes and the institutional culture to improve retention.

Texas' Approach to Staff Stability

One effort by the TDCJ was to complete a staff screening validation study with the help of Rice University.

According to Johnston, the department looked more closely at the elements of the pre-employment exam that would most effectively identify the tasks that COs performed.

"Some of the aspects of the pre-employment exam, while they provided information, it wasn't information that was meaningful in separating out those who would more likely perform the position functions," she said.

Previously the exam had several dimensions that evaluated an applicant including motivation, perceptiveness, communication skills, learning, emotional stability, stress tolerance, interpersonal skills, judgment and common sense and personal integrity.

"What we looked at were the aspects that were most effective at producing performance and stability in the workforce," Johnston said.

Based on the study, the most effective dimensions were motivation, communication skills, interpersonal skills, responsibility and personal integrity. The department then added new dimensions: previous work experience and maturity.

The revised test was given to new applicants beginning last September and although it will take time to determine whether it has had an effect on overall retention, Johnston believes it will be a better predictor.

Johnston is also confident that other efforts by the department have already made a difference. She cites an improvement in the department's vacancy rate from 12.8 percent in August 2001 to 8.8 percent in August 2003.

One of the biggest factors, she said, is a new focus on management training.

How does management training improve new employee retention? Johnston said exit interview answers from COs speak to the problem.

"When you look at some of the reasons employees identify as why they are leaving, many say it is the subordinate/manager working relationships. So, we think adding training will have a positive impact on our turnover rate," she said.

New Principles of Supervision training and Training for New Supervisors, which sergeants are required to attend within a brief time after promotion, are two examples.

"The challenge of corrections is you are working with the offenders and the employees. Here you are looking at the huge management of offenders then you have to switch gears and manage the employees' performance," said Johnston. "Sometimes the complexity for the leaders is changing their communications. Where you would order an offender, with an officer you don't need to order them."

Aside from management-level training, the department is looking to improve the officer/supervisor relationship through an expanded mentor program where a new officer is assigned to work with a seasoned officer for the first six months of employment.

Finally, the department has made a host of changes to improve working conditions for employees such as allowing officers to be able to transfer to another unit within six months of employment, allowing uniformed employees to exchange workdays with other uniformed employees of the same title and shift, and developing a standard overtime policy that allows COs to work only a maximum of 16 hours within a 24-hour period, with exceptions in the case of an emergency. Also under the policy wardens must limit staff to 12-hour shifts whenever possible, provide advanced notification of overtime requirements and ensure that if a staff member has to work a 16-hour shift he or she does not work two consecutive 16-hour shifts.

"We've made significant headway. It has been a meaningful and gradual improvement and from my observations our actual strength is increasing and has stabilized. We are seeing a steady decline in our shortage and our turnover," said Johnston.

As more agencies understand that recruiting the right staff and retaining them is a two-part goal that is inextricably linked, they will hopefully experience declines in staff turnover, but beyond that, they should see an increase in the commitment that staff have to the corrections profession.

Resources:

To reach Wallenstein at the Montgomery County Department of Correction, call 240-777-9976.

To reach the TDCJ, call 512-463-7837

For information about Hillsborough County, Fla. Sheriff's Office, visit  http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/