Louisiana's prison system is asking state lawmakers for a $21.6 million budget bump to help fund a 10% pay raise for entry-level correctional officers in an effort to stem soaring turnover rates among guards.
The state has struggled in recent years to attract and retain prison guards and its facilities remain chronically understaffed. A measly pay structure paired with grueling 12-hour shifts in non-air-conditioned prisons has made the job a tough sell.
The Department of Corrections currently has 444 unfilled guard positions — a vacancy rate of nearly 36%. The positions that are filled face a constant churn. At the Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie, Louisiana, the year-over-year turnover rate among frontline guards sits at 98%.
"It's out of control," Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc told the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. "We continue to see unprecedented vacancies and turnover of the frontline staff."
The 10% pay raise would apply to entry-level corrections officers and increase the starting wage from $13.97 to $15.37 per hour, upping the starting salary for cadets to just under $32,000 annually.
On top of that, officials hope to implement retention pay incentive that would add 50 cents to an officer's hourly wages during their first full year on the job, followed by a 70 cent, 90 cent and one dollar raise in subsequent years.
Together, the two salary changes would cost the agency an additional $10.6 million annually. The remaining funds in the $21.6 million request would cover overtime expenditures, which cost the agency $24.3 million in fiscal year 2020, a significant uptick from the $6.91 million spent in fiscal year 2016.
Louisiana's lawmakers approved a slight raise for corrections officers in 2018 that helped in the short term with hiring and retaining guards, but those gains have since worn away as neighboring states also upped their salaries and benefits.
The shortage in staffing has sometimes resulted in unsafe working environments for guards. A female correctional officer was raped at knifepoint last summer while stationed alone on a cell block at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel. There were 521 assaults by prisoners on guards in fiscal year 2020, down from 762 assaults in fiscal year 2018, according to the presentation Thursday.
The funding request comes as part of Gov. John Bel Edwards' proposed $36.6 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, which requires approval from state lawmakers. The Department of Corrections accounts for roughly $615 million of that request.
Without the funding, officials fear federal intervention, likely in the form of a consent decree from the U.S. Department of Justice — a costly legal maneuver that could force the state to spend millions more on upgrading its dilapidated carceral system.
"We’re very fortunate that the state of Louisiana has avoided major problems in its prison system in recent years," said Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne in February. "We must hope that that continues, but the biggest threat to that, I would suggest to you, is the inability to keep corrections workers."
Louisiana continues to lead the nation in its incarnation rate, with 580 prisoners per 100,000 residents. Still, Leblanc said that with criminal justice reforms passed in 2017, the state is narrowing that gap, noting that in 2012, the state had a whopping 860 prisoners per 100,000 residents.