By Theresa Clift
News-Herald Media
MARATHON COUNTY, Wisc. — Marathon County took another step to help make the understaffed Marathon County Jail safer after two inmates attacked a corrections officer in late March.
The Marathon County Human Resources Committee approved Monday a request by Sheriff Scott Parks to add two new positions to the current 36-person jail staff.
Parks hopes to have the two new hires on board by September; each will earn about $50,000 in salary and benefits. The positions will be funded in 2013 by the Sheriff’s Department and by Marathon County in 2014.
“We are looking at ways we can utilize these two new members to best serve not only the sheriff’s office, but those that are incarcerated, and especially maintaining the safety of the corrections officers that are working in that particular division,” Parks said.
The jail has a maximum occupancy of 279 inmates. As of Monday, it housed 306, said Paul Mergendahl, interim jail administrator.
Full story: County jail to hire two new corrections officers