The grim conditions created by understaffing prisons can lead to increased violence. When people are locked in their cells for long periods of time, they are more likely to act against staff and fellow inmates. In Mississippi, understaffing has contributed to attacks on officers. In Nevada, a corrections officers’ union blamed the understaffing for the murder of an inmate.
Brian Dawe, national director of One Voice United, an advocacy group for correctional officers, said overworked and sleep-deprived staff are also more likely to use excessive force against inmates. “Every time you walk through that door, it’s a constant battle in your head,” Dawe said.
This dynamic creates a spiral in which poor conditions cause prison employees to quit, which in turn leads to even worse conditions, causing even more employees to quit. “It becomes a cycle. You have to work overtime, which means you miss more and more time with your family,” Dawe said. “You have to work more and more, which burns you out and causes people to quit.”
The decline in the number of correctional officers reflects a general trend in public sector employment that has seen employment declines across all sectors. However, Census Bureau data show that the decline in correctional employment has been greater than in any other government sector in recent years.
One way to deal with shrinking staffing levels would be to reduce the prison population so that fewer employees are needed. But in many states, prison populations are recovering to pre-pandemic levels as courts resume operations. And in many jurisdictions, legislators, governors, parole boards and prosecutors are doing nothing to reduce inmate populations.
This leaves prison officials looking for new ways to increase staffing levels. Joan Heath, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, wrote in an email, “The role of a correctional officer is challenging compared to other available job openings. However, we will continue our recruitment efforts and demonstrate to prospective employees that working in corrections is a good and rewarding career.”
She said the state had partnered with an advertising agency that distributed recruitment videos through mass media and cable television.
Other states across the country have also tried new solutions to combat the problem. Some have lowered the minimum age for hiring correctional officers to 18; others have posted job ads on social media. At least 32 states have also increased salaries.
For example, Karen Pojmann, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said the state has “invested more than $175 million in raises for its staff since 2017, increasing salaries for most positions by more than 40 percent,” and has seen an increase in applications since then.
Phillips said when he worked in Georgia’s prisons, he struggled to make ends meet. The state has recently improved salaries and hired more staff, but still has trouble retaining employees. In the last six months, Georgia hired about 700 people, but at the same time, many left, so the net increase was only about 250.
But correctional workers say pay alone is not enough to retain staff if prisons fail to also improve the poor working conditions that lead to officers quitting: mandatory overtime, lack of mental health care and violence.
About a year after he started his service, Phillips worked a particularly difficult shift. The power in the wing had been out all day. To turn it back on, Phillips had to go outside and flip the switch. But, he said, he was the only officer assigned to an area of 600 men. Tensions were already high, and some people, many with severe mental illnesses, were setting their mattresses on fire. The smoke was thick and yellow. Phillips ran for a fire extinguisher, but it was empty. The next canister he tried was also empty.
As he tried to put out the flames, men began throwing feces and urine at him. “You can’t really blame them for losing their minds, especially when they’re being treated so badly,” Phillips said.
Eventually, Phillips found a working fire extinguisher and put out the fire. But at that moment, he received a call over the radio: He had to escort an incarcerated man who had just been stabbed to the hospital.
Phillips’ throat burned from inhaling the smoke and he was covered in dirt. He had worked eleven days straight and had no clean clothes, so another officer gave him his last shirt so he could go to the hospital. “Sixteen hours later, I was allowed to go home. And then I was supposed to be back the next day.”
Phillips resigned, but management convinced him to stay in another position for a few more months. He left the company permanently in February 2023.
From 2019 to 2022, Georgia’s correctional workforce was cut by about a third. During that time, the state’s spending on prison employee overtime rose to over $4 million, more than 11 times the pre-pandemic level.
Heath, the Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman, declined to comment on Phillips’ report but said trends have been moving in the right direction in recent months, with turnover rates declining.
But people currently in Georgia prisons or recently released from them said the situation remains dangerous. In interviews and correspondence with The Marshall Project, four inmates described how the staffing shortages affected nearly every aspect of their lives.
They reported having to wait long hours for important medical appointments and not having free time for weeks. Getting something as simple as a tampon was difficult because there were not enough staff to hand out sanitary products.
“It’s absolutely detrimental to everyone’s mental stability,” said a woman recently released from Georgia prison who asked to remain anonymous for fear it would affect her employment prospects. She said the conditions have led to depression and struggles. In fiscal year 2023, there were 40 murders and 38 suicides in Georgia state prisons, department records show.
Terrica Redfield Ganzy is executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which sued the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2021 over poor prison conditions.
She said the state is unnecessarily locking people up for technical parole violations even as it faces a major staffing crisis. Ganzy also argues the state could release more elderly and sick prisoners without jeopardizing public safety.
“I think people now agree that we’re probably not going to be able to fully utilize our staffing levels for the foreseeable future. We’re locking up a lot of people, but staffing levels just aren’t keeping up,” Ganzy said.
Dawe, of One Voice United, said it might surprise the public that many correctional officials support the approach. He said releasing the elderly and mentally ill could significantly reduce the burden on officers, who have no control over who is incarcerated but have to deal with the consequences.
Whatever the solution, Dawe said the lives and well-being of both staff and inmates are at stake. “We are all in the same toxic environment.”
This story was produced by The Marshall Projecta nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and maintain national awareness of the urgency of the U.S. criminal justice system, reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
