The Alabama Department of Corrections’ various pay increases in recent years have improved prison staff turnover rates and, though early, appear to be increasing hiring, a new state report says.
The study from the Alabama Commission on Evaluation of Services looked at multiple salary increases and their impacts on retention and recruitment from fiscal year 2015 through fiscal year 2023. The prison system’s vacancy rate of more than 60% in recent years is one of the cited reasons for violent conditions in several prisons.
But Alabama isn’t alone in prison employment struggles, according to ACES.
“Nearly every state has experienced a decline in correctional officer staffing over the past several years,” ACES Executive Director Marcus Morgan told Alabama Daily News. “Alabama consistently has a lower correctional officer turnover rate than surrounding states and correctional officers have been less likely to resign after recent compensation and classification changes — nearly a 30% reduction in voluntary turnover.
“However, it is too early to know how these changes have impacted hiring rates, but there is at least some evidence that it is improving post study period.”
The department told Alabama Daily News that since the 2023 pay changes, security staffing has increased by 15.43%, despite historically low unemployment and labor market participation rates.
Since 2018, the state has offered one-time, $7,500 bonuses to correctional officers, increased salaries by 5% across the board, increased salary ranges for various job classifications and created another promotion opportunity by adding another classification. Most significantly, in March 2023 ADOC raised starting salaries. A new correctional officer trainee at a maximum security prison now has a starting salary of nearly $57,000, an increase of about $20,000. At the same time, current employees were given 10% pay raises.
The ACES report said since 2019, correctional officer resignations have declined by an annual average of over 4%. Voluntary turnover also decreased among correctional officer trainees by more than 5%.
The increases mean about 140 officers retained, nearly 17% of the current correctional officers, the report says.
Federal lawsuits in the last decade put a spotlight on Alabama’s crowded and deadly prisons and staffing shortages. The state previously couldn’t meet a federal judge’s 2022 deadline to add 2,000 correctional officers. Officials have said the state won’t be able to meet an extended 2025 deadline.
The state’s hiring efforts are paying off, but more time is needed, ADOC Commissioner John Hamm told ADN recently. Between August 2023 and August 2024, the department added 210 security staff, he said.
“Plus 210 is not overwhelming, but it is a positive,” Hamm said about the department that not long ago was losing hundreds of employees per year.
That new number doesn’t include 55 new officer trainees who graduated last week from the Alabama Criminal Justice Training Center, Hamm said. Another class of about 100 starts later this month.
Court-mandated quarterly staffing reports confirm hiring is on an uptick in the first half of 2024.
In the second quarter of this year, ADOC’s overall vacancy rate decreased by 1.8 percentage points; correctional staff increased by 4.48%; correctional supervisors increased by 3.66%; and total correctional staff, including supervisors, increased by 4.33%.
The overall vacancy rate continued to decline, down to 57.1%. Three prisons still had vacancy rates of more than 70%: Bullock, Easterling and Ventress.
The evaluation commission was created through legislation in 2019 to study various state services. Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, chairs the commission and said he’s encouraged by the report and that the state’s financial commitment is starting to pay off.
“My takeaway is that the changes made by the Legislature, the governor and the department have shown significant improvements and, based on more recent data, they’re going to continue,” Orr told ADN. “Admittedly, they’re tough positions to fill, but they’re making progress.”
The report also highlighted the cost of turnover in the department. Paying overtime to cover vacant shifts and recruiting and training new employees costs the ADOC about $11 million per year. In July, ADN reported the ADOC was on track to spend more than $50 million on overtime this fiscal year.
The report says correctional officer pay is now comparable to other state law enforcement positions, hiring is on the rise and “the Alabama Department of Corrections may have to explore other methods to continue to reduce turnover and increase hiring.”
Hamm has repeatedly told lawmakers and other state leaders the department is “all ears” when it comes to additional recruitment suggestions. It ramped up advertising and job fair participation around the state and more recently has partnered with the Alabama Community College System to offer a free, six-week program designed to help participants meet the physical and educational pre-hiring requirements needed to move on to the ADOC academy.
Announced this summer, Hamm said the program is having an impact, so far prepared 23 people to enter ADOC’s academy.
“It’s another pipeline,” Hamm said.
So far, the program has been offered at Reid State Community College in Evergreen and Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham. It will soon be offered at Calhoun Community College in Decatur to prepare people for work at Limestone Correctional Facility in north Alabama.
Asked about other possible recruitment efforts, Hamm said there have been conversations about retirement benefits and rules. Lawmakers created a lesser “Tier II” category of retirement benefits for new state employees that went into effect in 2023 and requires ADOC staff to be 57 years old before they can retire and draw their benefits.
Other state and education agencies have tried to get Tier II age requirements lowered in recent years, calling it a hindrance to recruitment.