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| Texas Prison Officials to Eliminate Most Cash Pay for Overtime |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/05/2003 |
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The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Monday it would eliminate cash payments for the first 240 hours of overtime worked by prison officers and parole officers and instead give them extra time off from work. 'To continue to pay for overtime is simply not prudent if the agency is to get by for the next two years in our tight fiscal climate,' said Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Gary Johnson, adding that the overtime pay can be trimmed because of increased staffing since 1999. Johnson said overtime pay cost the prison system $36.1 million in 2002 and $32.2 million a year earlier. This year the state's prisons have budgeted for $22 million in overtime spending. Prison officials said officers rarely accumulate more than 240 hours of overtime and the amount of it worked by them has been scaled back since 1999 when personnel shortages caused the prison system to begin cash payments because of a drastic increase in the amount of overtime guards were working. Johnson said the state's 93 prison and state jail units are still not fully staffed but can eliminate the cash payments 'without negative impact on the safety of the public, our officers or the inmates.' |
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