State Prison Workers in U.S. are Quitting in Droves and It Isn't Just Because of COVID

Staff from state prisons are quitting in droves, but as the world continues to address the rampant pandemic, COVID-19 isn't the only reason these workers are leaving their jobs, the Associated Press reported.

Other contributing factors range from unsatisfactory pay to soaring numbers of other job opportunities as more businesses begin hiring.

"There are dozens of reasons to leave and very few to stay," said Brian Dawe, national director of One Voice United, a nonprofit organization that supports corrections officers. "Understaffing, poor pay, poor benefits, horrendous working conditions....Officers and their families in many jurisdictions have had enough."

The risk of COVID-19 to inmates in prisons gained attention amid the pandemic, but debate didn't touch as often on the risks for those who work in the facilities. Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the University of Michigan, said that it played a role in the exodus, AP reported.

"By failing to protect prisoners from COVID, the criminal justice system not only created an unfair risk of severe illness and death for the incarcerated, but the increased COVID risk to employees has undoubtedly contributed to staffing shortages," she wrote in an email.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Employers from construction companies to restaurants are having difficulty hiring and keeping people. Nearly 3 percent of American workers, 4.3 million, quit their jobs in August, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But the stakes are higher in prisons, where having fewer guards means significantly more dangerous conditions for incarcerated people. And for the officers left behind, worsening shortages have made an already difficult job unbearable, many say.

In Georgia, some prisons report up to 70 percent vacancy rates. In Nebraska, overtime hours have quadrupled since 2010, as fewer officers are forced to work longer hours. Florida has temporarily closed three prisons out of more than 140 facilities because of understaffing, and vacancy rates have nearly doubled there in the last year. And at federal prisons across the country, guards are picketing in front of their facilities over understaffing, while everyone from prison teachers to dentists is pulled in to cover security shifts.

In recent weeks, reporters from The Marshall Project and AP have spoken with workers, officials, attorneys and people incarcerated in more than a dozen prison systems to understand the consequences of the staffing shortfalls.

The federal Bureau of Prisons says about 93 percent of its front-line guard positions are filled, with little more than 1,000 vacancies, though workers in many prisons say they're feeling the pinch as others are conscripted to fill in for missing officers.

Asked last week in a U.S. Senate hearing about federal prison staffing, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, "I agree this is a serious problem at the Bureau of Prisons."

Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco was working with the bureau to address staffing issues.

In Kansas, state Department of Corrections Secretary Jeff Zmuda testified before the legislature that the problems now are unlike any he's seen in his career. Kansas has more than 400 unfilled jobs for uniformed officers, a number he expects to grow in the coming months as workers are lured by other employers that pay better.

Quitting can have a snowball effect, said Doug Koebernick, inspector general of the Nebraska correctional system. "People leave, then that creates more overtime and stress and more vacancies," he said. "It's like this spiral." Many corrections officers said they were forced to work more overtime as fewer people showed up for shifts. In Texas, guards have worked as much as 16-hour days.

Inside prisons, growing shortages mean a rise in lockdowns. Restrictions that might have begun as a way to stop the spread of COVID-19 have continued because there aren't enough guards to supervise activities. Some incarcerated people say they can't take classes, participate in group therapy sessions or even work out in the recreation yard or take a shower. That can force those in general population into de facto solitary confinement, and those already in segregation into near-total lockdown.

"If we get rec once a week, that's a good week," said Anthony Haynes, who is on Texas' death row in a unit that is barely half-staffed. "We don't always get showers."

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not respond to Haynes' claims but acknowledged that staffing is a challenge in Texas' prisons.

"Before COVID-19, staffing was frequently impacted by economic surges and competing employment opportunities," said spokesman Robert Hurst in an email. "The pandemic has exacerbated these issues. We also recognize that the job of the correctional officer is one of the most difficult in all of state government." He added that Texas has closed six of its more than 100 facilities in the last year due to staffing problems.

Kansas has cut job training and reduced supervision for people after they're released. Two-thirds of the men in Nebraska's prisons can't see visitors on the weekends—when most families are free to travel—because of understaffing.

The constant isolation takes a toll. "As of October, we have not had yard for two weeks," wrote one man at Illinois' Pontiac Correctional Center, where officials report 35 percent of corrections officer jobs are vacant. (His testimony was compiled by lawyers suing the state prison system over a dearth of mental health care.) "I feel very overwhelmed...I can't talk about my problems to anyone. I pace back and forth and talk to myself because there's nothing else to do."

Mental health care is dwindling, prisoners and lawyers argue, as people in prison grow more desperate. In Illinois, canceled one-on-one therapy means what little counseling is available happens briefly through a cell door, in full earshot of the rest of the tier, said attorney Alan Mills of the Uptown People's Law Center, which has sued the state corrections department over inadequate mental and physical health care, due in large part to a lack of qualified staff.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections said that Pontiac continues to provide out-of-cell programming and one-on-one counseling. "While staffing challenges have had an impact on scheduling, the department is committed to delivering the highest quality mental and medical health care as possible," said Lindsey Hess in an email.

Officials from corrections departments in Georgia and Washington, where the governor halted the transfer of people from county jails to prisons for two weeks due to staffing changes, did not respond to requests for comment.