The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The overtime cost saw a 27 percent rise to $36.3 million for the fiscal year ending in mid 2006. Then it rose to $38.2 million in the last fiscal year.

The prison population, meanwhile, rose by about 1,000 inmates from mid-2005 to mid-2007, instead of falling slightly as the Department of Corrections projected.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported in March 2006 that the number of inmates in state prisons rose more quickly than the number of guards between 2002 and 2005, leading to a 78 percent increase in overtime payments to corrections officers during that period.

In the state budget passed by the Legislature this fall, lawmakers included money for hiring 50 corrections officers, which is expected to reduce the overtime costs to $26.3 million this fiscal year.

While the new hires will raise payroll costs, the state should save $1.2 million compared to paying overtime that otherwise would be needed, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates.

Susan Crawford, who was a top aide to Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch before leaving last week for a job in the state Department of Natural Resources, said the rise in overtime resulted from many factors, including more inmates and labor contracts that raised wages and provided officers with more days off.

She also noted the agency has had to deal with personnel cuts, such as the 39 corrections jobs eliminated by the Legislature in 2005.

"We have not always had a lot of success in getting additional hiring authority, " she said.

DOC spokesman John Dipko said the agency has acted to reduce overtime, including reviewing overtime use in advance, delaying any training that would be done on overtime and consolidating prisoner transports.

State Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said he is skeptical of the department 's explanations.

"The answers they gave us didn 't seem to quite add up, " he said. "We feel there 's something else going on, but we haven 't been able to pinpoint it. It seems there 's something not quite right. Perhaps they need an audit. "

Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, suggested critical lawmakers should visit prisons and experience the conditions officers face. The staff shortage can result in officers working double eight-hour shifts while dealing with inmates who like to hassle prison personnel.

"If they think this is a circus or playground that people are going to work in (and) that this is a place with nice working conditions, come out and take a look, " Beil said.

Overtime, he said, is driven by a worker shortage.

The 50 new officers will help the situation, Beil said, but he would have liked to see twice as many authorized.

He defended those who work long hours, volunteering for lots of overtime, although he said the union does not encourage doing it.

"Is it healthy? I don 't think so, " Beil said. "Is it wrong? No. "

The starting pay for the officers is $29,591 a year.

A sergeant at the Fox Lake Correctional Institution earned a base salary of $52,213 last year and another $68,695 in overtime, for a total of $120,908.

An officer at the Columbia Correctional Institution also topped $120,000 in total earnings, and a sergeant there made more than $119,000.

The Wisconsin State Journal contributed to this story.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=262089&ntpid=3