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| Corrections Overtime costs Union County $6M Last Year |
| By Ryan Hutchinsr , The Star-Ledge, nj.com |
| Published: 05/11/2011 |
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Kenneth Wright is a hard worker. One week last year, the 57-year-old corrections officer logged more than 72 hours of overtime with Union County, where he is one of 31 sergeants at the county jail in Elizabeth. That was on top of his regular 40-hour work week, spent coordinating training programs. It might seem overly grueling to some, but to Wright, who has 22 years with the county, it’s not far from the norm. A contractually negotiated system has allowed Wright to average 29 hours of overtime every week for the past six years. He more than doubled his base salary and brought home $205,000 last year, making him one of the highest paid county employees without a medical degree, according to documents obtained by The Star-Ledger through open records requests. Wright tops a long list of big-bucks overtime earners at the county jail, where extra man-hours cost $6 million last year — down from $7.3 million in 2006 and 2007, records show. And while the overtime costs may be down — due in part to an increase in staffing — it’s still a controversial issue, with critics saying more needs to be done. The county doesn’t disagree, and has pledged to increase the ranks of supervising officers, a group that now accounts for the lion’s share of overtime. "Continually, we’ve been the highest overtime-total jail in the state of New Jersey, at least since I’ve been affiliated with the jail," said Brian Riordan, the director of Union County’s Department of Correctional Services, which runs the facility that houses about 1,000 inmates a day. But Monmouth County surpassed Union in total jail overtime costs last year, paying officers about $5.7 million in county funds plus an additional $1.1 million through federal funding, said Cynthia Scott, a spokeswoman for the county sheriff’s office. That was an increase from 2009, when Monmouth paid at least $5 million for overtime. The jump was driven by the layoffs of 35 corrections officers, Scott said. The type of work being done only makes the situation more complex. In a jail, where the stakes are high, understaffing could lead to injuries or death. When an officer scheduled to work calls out sick, someone has to fill that shift. "I can’t leave floors unattended," Riordan said. "We have direct supervision." Bob Thomas, an Olympia, Wash.-based consultant on law safety and justice operations, said hiring additional officers may appear to be the fastest way to reduce the amount of overtime, but adding more staff may not reduce overtime enough to reduce a department’s overall costs. Balancing staffing levels and overtime, Thomas said, is a "science." ADDING SUPERVISORS Union County had already hired about 50 additional rank-and-file officers since 2007, but they weren’t eligible to work supervisory shifts. So, to address overtime by supervisors, the county is promoting officers to create more sergeants and lieutenants. Click here to read more: |
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