Lack of correctional officers costing Clinton County money; facility study proposed
LOCK HAVEN, PA – Continuing staffing problems at the Clinton County Correctional Facility are costing the county money and the county commissioners are looking at an outside study to help stem the flow of county dollars. Commissioner Jeff Snyder said the staffing shortage is “serious” and the study should help county efforts to “keep costs of that facility down.”
Snyder said at the commissioners’ Monday work session the county is looking at bringing in CGL Management Group, LLC, a nationally recognized company on prison operations. The cost of the study is $43,770. Board approval is expected at Thursday’s voting session.
Snyder offered some grim numbers on Monday: normally there are 56 correctional officers at the McElhattan-based prison. Recently that number has ranged from 20 to 25 officers, despite county efforts to offer financial incentives for current and future employees.
When the county lockup is filled, it accommodates outside prisoners from other county, state and federal sources. This “per diem” money from other sources is now low because there is not sufficient manpower at the prison. Snyder said that in the past, with more per diem money, “prison costs to operate were normally around $6.4 million (annually)…the local cost of that with per diems is around $2.2 million.”
In a nutshell, Snyder later explained to therecord-online, “Our costs are kept down by the income of the per diems; if we don’t have them our costs go up. We are currently turning away detainees because we do not have enough correctional officers to supervise them.”
Services to be provided by CGL, per information provided by the county:
Project Understanding
In conducting an analysis of prison operations, our team reviews organization, operations, and program service delivery, considering the following critical factors:
• Facility utilization – Facility capacity and how it is used, provides the framework along which a prison operates. Capacity management drives decisions on the establishment and staffing of officer posts required for adequate supervision of the population.
• Inmate classification – The type of inmates housed in a facility will have a large bearing on the need for supervision and the level of risk present in an institution.
• Inmate movement patterns – The degree and nature of that movement (escorted or unescorted) relate directly to the degree of control exercised over inmate behavior and the staffing required for that level of control.
• Transportation requirements for court or medical services – The frequency with which inmates leave a facility for purposes such as court appearances or medical services and the distance of these trips will have a significant impact upon staffing requirements.
• Perimeter and interior security systems – The nature of the perimeter or internal security systems that a facility uses can either create a significant demand for additional staff or reduce staffing needs. Technology deployed to provide ongoing surveillance of inmate activity can monitor multiple locations or blind spots in an institution.
• Training policies – The degree to which training activity takes staff away from their duties will create a demand for utility or relief staff, or utilization of overtime.
• Division of responsibility with civilian staff – In any institution, a number of positions come into direct contact with inmates, but they may not require correctional officer staffing. Personal property, dietary, and commissary are just a few examples of functions that may be staffed by civilians, depending upon policy.
• Prioritization of posts – The ability of management to evaluate its post objectively, and to determine which posts can be safely closed under certain circumstances, plays a key role in the efficient allocation of staff for an institution.
• Operating procedures/standards – A facility’s operating procedures and standards set out the blueprint for staffing by outlining required duties and responsibilities.
Once on site, the CGL project team will conduct an extensive review of the facility to fully assess staffing, operations, and contracted service delivery. The project team will conduct a thorough tour of the facility, noting any issues that may have an impact upon prison operations and costs.
We will also review the organization and staffing of all ancillary services and programs. We will assess available workload and performance data to determine resource requirements and conduct an organizational review of whether the administrative and management structure of these areas maximize operational efficiency. This will include a review of overall organizational span of control and management reporting structure.
