Florida Phoenix
Florida’s prison population has increased by about 8,000 inmates since 2021 with no corresponding increase in staff, meaning that correctional officers are working more overtime hours than ever before.
And that’s a problem, says Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon.
“What that caused us to have to do is open up 53 housing units across our state that we did not get FTE (full-time employees) for or funding for, so the only way to manage those additional 53 housing units required over 800 officers. (That places the burden) on the backs of the existing officers, in addition to overtime,” Dixon told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Criminal and Civil Justice on Wednesday.
While the number of overtime hours has dropped in the past two fiscal years, Dixon showed in his slide presentation, the actual costs to the Department have increased, because the base salary for correctional officers has increased from $33,520 in 2020 to over $47,000 currently.
There are approximately 88,000 inmates in Florida’s prisons, but Dixon expects another 3,000 inmates within the next two years, who will require 18 more housing units and 461 more staff positions. “So, this overtime issue is not going away. It’s just going to continue to escalate.”
In addition to increasing the salaries of correction officers in recent years, the Legislature has paid for 275 new education jobs in state prisons, which Dixon said has been somewhat of a mixed bag.
“The immediate benefit is it’s reducing violence in our prisons, because we’re reducing inmate idleness, but the negative is that we didn’t get any security positions to secure the education building,” he said. He’s had to pull security positions from housing units to education facilities, adding to the staffing burden and increasing overtime costs.
The corrections secretary said that many of the officers in Florida prisons lack tenure, with 58% having less than two years’ experience and 70% less than three. “That’s the prison system that we’re running right now. The inmates have more experience than the officers,” he said.
More violent offenders
He cautioned lawmakers that the prison system is “getting a much more violent and volatile offender in our system.”
“The inmates are getting more violent,” he said. “That requires a more intense higher level of staffing. That impacts overtime in the prisons.”
Dixon said the solution is ultimately to more staff.
“If we have a funded position for all of the housing units, all the dorms, even if we have vacancies, the dollars associated with those positions generate enough funds to pay for overtime.”
Currently, the department is running a $189 million deficit, which Dixon says he hopes the Legislature addresses in the state budget later this year.
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Mitch Perry reporting. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: [email protected].
