'Floating crew' required at Tennessee prison to oversee inmates
A "floating crew" of correction officers is being sent to the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee, to bolster staffing. (Photo: Tennessee Department of Correction)
Despite a major increase in prison officer salaries, the Tennessee Department of Correction is hitting personnel shortages, forcing it to bring in a 'floating security crew' at state facilities.
A five-person group of correctional officers volunteered to assist staff in March at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, which has capacity for 1,776 male inmates, including juvenile offenders convicted as adults, the department confirmed.
The state is hiring 20 more correctional officers to serve on the 'floating security crew,' and depending on experience their pay could range from $4,675 to $5,300 a month, up to $63,600 a year, about 20% more than the average pay for officers, according to the department.
Officers on the crew travel to locations where they are needed based on staffing levels, and applications for the job are available on the Department of Correction's website.
The department wouldn't say whether Northwest Correctional had suffered any security breakdowns or major incidents because of the staffing shortage.
Shortages come at a time the state is requiring inmates to serve longer terms because of the so-called 'truth and sentencing' law and support for a constitutional amendment that would enable judges to deny bail to more offenders.
Republican Sen. Ed Jackson of Jackson, chairman of a legislative committee on prisons, said Northwest Correctional has a history of correctional officer vacancies.
'It's just hard to get people in that part of the state to go in as correctional officers. I know they've struggled up there quite a bit over the last three or four years,' Jackson said.
The state increased officer salaries and held recruiting events in West Tennessee to hire more officers, but couldn't keep the staffing level up to standards, Jackson added. He was uncertain whether additional pay increases would solve the problem.
The department announced in January it was putting $37 million more into salary increases for correctional officers and security personnel, effective Feb. 16, raising starting salaries to $51,204 with additional increases that would bump pay to $60,720 after 18 months. Current staff was to see a 10% increase or be brought up to the new base salary, according to the department.
The pay increase came on the heels of a 35% pay booster two years ago.
Correction Commissioner Frank Strada told lawmakers in February state-run prisons have a 26% vacancy rate for correction officers compared to 33.7% at Trousdale Turner, a facility run by the state's private contractor, CoreCivic. The Trousdale prison remains under a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
'This investment in our people recognizes the value of correctional professionals and demonstrates the support we have received from the Governor's Office and the General Assembly,' Strada said in a January letter to employees.
Strada said in the letter the pay increase would make the Department of Correction one of the highest-paying correctional agencies in the Southeast.
The Tennessee State Employees Association called the raises an 'important step' toward dealing with the challenge of recruiting and keeping employees at state prisons.
The department is requesting a $6.8 million contract increase for its private prison operator even though it penalized the company $44.78 million since 2022 for contractual shortfalls, $15 million the last month alone, mainly for personnel shortages.
CoreCivic refuses to disclose what it pays officers, and similarly to the state, it brings personnel from other states to boost staff when it has shortages. Trousdale Turner sustained a 146% turnover rate in 2023.
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