By Ted Clifford
The State
EDGEFIELD, S.C. — For months, employees at the federal prison in Edgefield, South Carolina, have been working overtime.
At full staff, there are supposed to be roughly 120 officers, but with almost 30 vacancies, staff including nurses, electricians and social workers have been called to take shifts guarding units.
In October, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced that it would no longer recognize the master agreement between the agency and the Council of Prison Locals, the union that represents more than 30,000 employees in prisons around the country.
Now, those corrections officers are no longer being paid.
“It’s a perfect storm,” said Brandy Moore White, president of Council of Prison Locals 33, a union that represents federal prison employees.
The government shutdown means that employees at federal prisons in South Carolina and around the country, who have already been hit with staffing shortages and low morale, will stop being paid.
How many workers are impacted?
There are roughly 5,000 federal prisoners spread across four main federal prisons in South Carolina — Federal Correction Institutions Edgefield, Bennettsville, Estill and Williamsburg. All four are medium security facilities. These prisons also contain so-called “camps,” minimum security facilities designed for prisoners who committed nonviolent crime or who are about to be released.
As essential workers, employees at federal prisons are still required to show up everyday. But with funding frozen due to the government shutdown, employees are facing an uncertain future. With no immediate end in sight for the shutdown, the paycheck they received last week might be the last one they see for a while.
“Morale is very low,” said Talmadge Coleman, who recently retired from FCI Edgefield and is president of the Local 0510 at the prison. Staff were “very disgruntled” at the situation, Coleman added.
The State reached out to the Bureau of Prisons; however an automated email stated that due to the government shutdown the agency would not be responding to press inquiries.
The majority of employees are corrections officers who are responsible for interacting directly with the inmate population. But these prisons also employ teachers, nurses, social workers, cooks, electricians and other specialized support staff.
Many staff members were already “living paycheck to paycheck,” Coleman said.
The paycheck employees received last week was only a partial paycheck covering hours worked up until Sept. 30 . That meant many employees saw $400 to $500 less on their last payday.
But with the shutdown, that will leave many of these employees who guard federal prisoners unable to pay their mortgages, make car payments or even afford groceries or the gas to get to work. Many staff members are single moms, people looking after their parents and juggling medical bills and the rising cost of living, Coleman said.
“Creditors don’t want to hear it,” Coleman said.
During the last shutdown, the agency gave employees a letter that they could show to creditors explaining the situation. This time, no letter has been forthcoming.
At the beginning of the month, the Bureau of Prisons announced that it would no longer honor the collective bargaining agreement between the agency and its employees. The move came as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back workers’ union rights. So far, President Trump has used executive orders to remove union protections from nearly half a million workers.
During the last government shutdown, which lasted 35 days during President Donald Trump’s first term, the union worked to help organize support for the corrections employees. Many employees have a law enforcement mentality where they feel too “proud” to take what they see as charity, Moore White said. She would go as far as telling union members they could leave their cars unlocked so she could put food packages inside while they were at work.
“The agency doesn’t recognize us anymore, so that’s one less thing that we can help with,” Moore White said. “It’s just disaster upon disaster.”
A staffing crisis
The freeze on pay comes as the department has struggled for years to fill vacancies.
“We’re an agency in a staffing crisis,” Moore White said.
For years, the agency has struggled to attract new talent. Part of the problem is that federal corrections officers have not received a meaningful raise outside of cost of living adjustments since the 1970s, Moore White said.
While they vary in different parts of the country, salaries for corrections officers in the federal system can begin around $40,000. It’s low pay for challenging, stressful work, Moore White said.
As a result, for years staff members have found themselves working mandatory overtime, Coleman said. In order to fill holes, prison leadership has relied on a policy known as “augmentation,” where staff members who hold specialized jobs, for instance teachers or carpenters, are being required to supervise housing units.
While all staff members receive the same basic corrections training, “it’s just very frustrating and very hard on the prison to operate like it should because you’re constantly getting pulled to do something else,” Moore White said.
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