Fri, May 09 2008
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Published March 26, 2008 11:59 am - Prison system falling short? Some say pay is at the center of staff woes By James Beaty MCALESTER NEWS-CAPITAL (MCALESTER, Okla.) McALESTER, Okla. — Short seems to be the operative word at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The Department of Corrections is short on money, the prison is short on staff, and correctional officers are short on sleep. How long can that go on before it begins to affect the public? And why are there so few correctional officers? “The turnover rate is high and there is definitely a shortage of prison employees right now,” Sen. Richard Lerblance said. He feels that the answer to getting and keeping correctional officers is money. “If we could pay them a decent salary we could get some career people, not just people looking for a job,” Lerblance said. “We’re losing them after we’ve invested the time and money to get them trained as a correctional officer.” Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie agrees. “We’ve hired a large number of people this year, Massie said, "but the problem is that you lose about the same number each year, through retirement or people leaving the agency for one reason or another. Particulary in that first year and a half. That’s when we lose the majority of our people. 
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