Understaffing at Allegheny County Jail leads to $15 million in overtime last year
Understaffing and double shifts of forced overtime are raising safety and security concerns at the Allegheny County Jail.
The jail's 350-plus corrections officers rack up the most overtime of any operation in county government — $15 million last year, with several making more than $100,000 in overtime alone.
It's good money, but due to understaffing, the officers need to work it whether they want to or not, and union head Brian Englert says that's led to sleep-deprived officers who are less ready to deal with potentially violent situations.
"It's a very dangerous job," Englert said. "Lack of sleep and burnout affects and impairs your ability to do your job."
Eight inmates have been ordered to stand trial for the May beating death of fellow inmate Tyrone Good, and there are questions of whether there was sufficient staff on duty. Englert also cites more confrontations with corrections officers and confiscated weapons. The jail has issued inmates Android tablets and Englert says some have turned the heat shields into blades.
"If we had a little bit more officers, we could do jailwide shakedowns to get rid of some of these weapons," Englert said.
The union says to date their concerns have fallen on deaf ears, but county manager John Fournier says the Innamorato administration is ready to address them.
"I wouldn't say it's a dangerous situation, but I would say that we are definitely interested in improving the employee environment down there," Fournier said.
Starting with forced overtime, the county says it needs to address understaffing by recruiting and retaining more officers. While Innamorato trimmed other county departments, her budget introduced last week adds $10 million more to the jail. Fournier says most of that will go towards hiring.
"If we had more corrections officers, we would have to rely less on overtime and we would have to rely a lot less on forced overtime," Fournier said. "That will help the entire environment down at the jail."
Over the years, there have been concerns that overtime and staffing problems have been exacerbated by high numbers of corrections officers on family medical leave, and suspicion that some are abusing the system. KDKA filed a Right-to-Know request, which could not yield an exact number but indicates that FMLA remains high.
While Fournier says the county will do closer monitoring of FMLA and possible abuse, he says the hiring of more officers and improving working conditions will go a long way in solving that problem and others.
"We have to get over that crest and find ways to recruit and retain these corrections officers and as we meet that challenge, we're just going to keep bringing resources and attention to it until we find a solution," Fournier said.
The county believes it will finally address the long-simmering problems at the jail with more money and more attention to detail. The union says they'll believe it when they see it.
