By Patrick Marley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MADISON — State corrections officials have put on hold for now a proposal to make prison officers work 12-hour shifts at a second facility.
Since January, officers at the Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution have been working 12-hour shifts instead of eight-hour shifts as part of a project aimed at reducing overtime costs. Prison officials had been eyeing expanding the program to the Redgranite Correctional Institution but last week backed off that idea, according to a memo to Redgranite staff from Cathy Jess, the adult institutions administrator for the state.
“After much deliberated discussion, a decision has been made not to expand the 12-hour schedule at (Redgranite) at this time,” Jess wrote. “We will, however, continue to focus our attention on the evaluation of the (Prairie du Chien) pilot.”
The Department of Corrections needs a full year of data from Prairie du Chien to understand the budget implications of 12-hour shifts, Jess wrote.
While the program will not be expanding to Redgranite, officers at Prairie du Chien will continue to work 12-hour shifts through 2015 at least, according to her memo.
Some officers at Redgranite expressed serious concerns about changing over to 12-hour shifts, saying it would make it difficult for them to pick up their children from school and attend their after-school activities.
The administration promoted the plan as one that would give officers more than 70 extra days off a year and stressed that it had been popular with Prairie du Chien’s staff.
Security staff on 12-hour shifts at Prairie du Chien work three days one week and four days the next. That results in 36 hours of work one week and 48 hours the second week — a total of 84 hours, with eight hours paid at time and a half.
While the schedule has built-in overtime for every officer each pay period, prison officials believe it could reduce overtime costs overall because shifts could more efficiently be covered. Uncovered shifts have long caused overtime costs in Wisconsin prisons to spike.
A Department of Corrections study last year determined more than $950,000 a year could be saved at Waupun Correctional Institution by moving to 12-hour shifts. But the analysis noted that would happen only if all security positions were filled.
State prisons, however, often face significant staff shortages that result in increased overtime. For instance, 10 of 111 officer and sergeant positions were vacant at Prairie du Chien as of June; 11 of 188 such positions at Redgranite were vacant at that time.
In practice, the effects of the longer shifts on the budget remain unclear.
Compared with the same five-month period in 2013, overtime costs this year are up $90,000 at Prairie du Chien. That is not entirely because of the 12-hour shifts, however, corrections officials say.
Officers from that facility this year have had to stay with more inmates who were transported to hospitals, contributing to the increased overtime costs.