Mike Carpenter, chief of security at LARC, said competing pay in other jobs makes Department of Corrections jobs jess appealing.

“We compete with the oil field which is booming right now and paying very well, and even 7-Eleven has comparable pay on their midnight shift,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said that at times, LARC operates at the minimum number of guards it can, which is about 1,400 inmates to 22 guards. That equals about 64 inmates per guard.

“What pay boils down to is quality of life,” he said. “So as the price of basic life necessities — milk, bread, eggs — goes up and (the correctional officers’) purchasing power goes down, their quality of life goes down too.”