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| TDCJ Employee pay raises top priority |
| By TDCJ - |
| Published: 02/25/2009 |
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Employee pay raises top priority for legislative session Although the Department of Criminal Justice will be seeking additional appropriations for such important items as contraband detection screening and video surveillance technology, enhanced reentry services for releasing offenders and the renovation and repair of existing facilities, salary increases for TDCJ staff remain the agency’s highest legislative priority for new funding, according to Executive Director Brad Livingston. illustration of TDCJ seal on top of stack of moneyThe Department is seeking an average pay increase of approximately twenty percent for security staff and parole officers and supports an across-the-board pay raise for all other agency employees. The agency is also seeking funding to provide retention bonuses to correctional officers currently employed at or willing to transfer to designated understaffed units, and seeking a change in state law which will make all hazardous duty personnel eligible for the higher rate of hazardous duty pay authorized during the last legislative session. Additionally, the agency is seeking funding to construct three (3) 80-bed officer dormitories, which could be constructed adjacent to three (3) of our most understaffed units. According to Executive Director Livingston, a recent decline in correctional officer vacancies demonstrates how effective increased compensation can be in addressing staffing shortfalls. “We have seen substantial progress in reducing CO vacancies during the last year, progress that was made well before the recent downturn in the economy, which I attribute largely to enhancements to the career ladder,” Livingston said. “But we won’t maintain those gains unless compensation for veteran correctional officers is increased.” Livingston also noted that recent events like Hurricane Ike and enhanced contraband detection procedures have only added to the demands on existing staff. “It’s a good thing we have made progress, but we can’t become complacent,” Livingston said. “Due to recent events, we now have correctional officers conducting more pat searches and correctional officers deployed in free world hospitals supervising offenders displaced from Hospital Galveston, that has to be taken into account.” Livingston added that funding for contraband detection equipment such as metal detectors and parcel screening devices as well as funding for comprehensive video surveillance systems at all TDCJ facilities is another high legislative priority, one that would benefit all staff working on correctional facilities by providing a safer working environment. While the agency recently requested approximately $66 million in the current fiscal year for these capital items, Livingston emphasized that his testimony before the Legislature will emphatically state that increased employee compensation remains TDCJ’s highest priority. He also said the Department and the Office of Inspector General will once again seek statutory authority for OIG to utilize technology designed to detect cell phones, and will join with many other state correctional systems in advocating changes in federal law which permit cell phone jamming in correctional institutions. Livingston also added that upon the conclusion of the legislative session, the Department will prepare a summary of legislative actions impacting TDCJ employees and the agency as a whole. That summary will be made available to all staff via the TDCJ website. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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