By Avery G. Wilks
The State (Columbia, S.C.)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s 21 prisons have more than 600 employee vacancies but could really use 1,000 more corrections officers, Corrections Department Director Bryan Stirling told a panel of lawmakers Thursday.
But the department can afford to hire only about 285 new officers, and it needs the extra manpower to boost employee morale at S.C. prisons that are under fire after a recent prison riot that left seven inmates dead, Stirling said.
“Our employees are stretched,” Stirling said of the 3,000 officers under his command. “For the better part of this decade, we’ve been losing employees left and right.”
Stirling’s testimony came as a group of S.C. senators Thursday kicked off a series of hearings into the prison system’s problems — from understaffing and low pay for COs to the near-constant flow of contraband into prisoners’ hands.
The Corrections Department is under renewed public scrutiny after seven inmates were stabbed to death and 22 more were injured in a mid-April riot at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville.
“In South Carolina, we do not desire to be on national news and in the media with the greatest disturbance, as we’ve seen at Lee Correctional,” said state Sen. Karl Allen, D-Greenville, the Senate panel’s chairman.
Stirling, who oversees 21 prisons and more than 19,000 inmates, testified Thursday that recruiting officers has been a struggle since he was named director in 2013.
When Stirling arrived at the department, corrections officers were paid just $26,826 a year. They now are paid an average of $33,289 a year, and S.C. lawmakers have included money in next year’s proposed state budget to raise COs’ annual salaries by $1,000.
Still, morale is low in some areas, Stirling said, and until recently the department has lost about 150 employees each year.
The department is trying to boost morale where it can, Stirling said. For example, it currently is buying new boots for officers and is considering purchasing new uniforms. But that’s no substitute for more hiring, he said.
“The biggest thing that’s going to boost morale is more officers,” Stirling said. “You’ve got someone that’s there. You’ve got someone that’s got your back.”
Last month, Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order allowing Stirling to use vacancy money to increase the pay of some corrections officers and raise starting salaries in an effort to fill vacant positions for COs. The order also removed rules that kept some jail staff from earning overtime.
Allen said he wants to open a “flow of communication” that would allow prison COs and inmates to email senators with their private complaints and suggestions. Stirling said he would get to work on that as soon as Thursday’s hearing ended.
State Sen. Rex Rice, R-Pickens, said the subcommittee would travel across the state to hear from S.C. residents and to meet face-to-face with COs and inmates.
©2018 The State (Columbia, S.C.)