Director urges raise for prison employees

BOISE – Idaho is losing correction officers to higher-paying jobs elsewhere, leading to a nearly 30 percent turnover rate among the state’s prison staffers, Department of Correction Director Tom Beauclair told legislative budget writers on Tuesday.

“My No. 1 priority is a raise for correction officers and uniformed staff,” Beauclair said. “Our correction officers start at 33 percent below the market rate, and not only do they start lower, they lose ground during their career.”

The average wage for prison guards runs at about $12.66 an hour in Idaho, compared with more than $18 in Washington and more than $19 in Oregon, Beauclair said.

Meanwhile, the state lacks community-based treatment centers for drug-addicted offenders, forcing officials to decide whether to send inmates out of state for treatment or release them back into society with many of the same problems that prompted their prison time, Beauclair said.

In all, Beauclair asked members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee to approve a budget of more than $155 million for the 2007 fiscal year, nearly $36.5 million more than in the previous year and almost $13 million more than Gov. Dirk Kempthorne recommended.

Last year, more than 63,000 hours of overtime were needed to cover all the security needs of the prison, he said. Also, Idaho was forced to send hundreds of inmates to a private Minnesota prison after a federal judge said the state’s prison system was too crowded.

“The days of stretching and accommodating the system are gone,” Beauclair said.

The budget proposal includes $1.5 million to build a new 400-bed community drug treatment facility in southwestern Idaho.

The center would be used as a halfway-house of types for parolees and probationers, Beauclair said, and would provide a place other than prison to house parolees who violate their release.

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, said she was worried about the low pay for department employees and wondered if there were ways the state could improve retention besides boosting pay.

“We’re a bad-news business – it’s a very difficult job,” Beauclair said.

The department has already begun increasing training for employees who want to move into management positions, Beauclair said, but other perks such as providing education stipends for employees who are attending college could also help improve retention.

Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, asked Beauclair if faith-based organizations could take on a greater role in treating and mentoring offenders.

“Those mentoring programs seem to work the best, but where we get into trouble with faith-based is when we don’t properly train those faith-based groups,” Beauclair said, which can put the volunteers at risk of being manipulated by inmates.

Still, he said, “I would support any kind of faith-based program.”