The Arizona Department of Corrections is losing employees, and its method to cover the shortage is forcing out even more employees. 
Employees of the Arizona Department are forced to work mandatory overtime periods, usually from four to eight hours, and they're often assigned overtime shifts more than once a week. 
Depending on the terms of their employment, some employees get immeditate comp time, which means, for example, if they work six hours of overtime, they must take off six hours before that pay period has ended. For those employees it can create disjointed schedules, and it leaves other employees working more overtime to fill in those holes.
Most other employees agree to some kind of deferred comp time.  The payment for those extra hours doesn't come until the end of the fiscal year. Greg Fizer, an Arizona prison Warden, says starting pay is low, he says, and the number of quality applicants is low. With a shortage of officers, it forces overtime, and that pushes workers away.
Fizer says staff numbers haven't reached unsafe levels, yet.
"Those concerns exist when you have a shortage of staff and the number of inmates we have," he said.
It's no secret to the 4200 inmates, many officers are working tired.
"Certainly after 16 hours, you're less alert than after an eight hour period, a factor we have to deal with," Fizer said.
Fizer says it's up to the state legislature to keep more from doing the same.
"We're asking legislators to acknowledge the fact we have serious situation staffing statewide. We want a pay package and staffing salary where we can attract and keep qualified folks, bottom line," he said.