By Corrections1 Staff
MADISON, Wis. — Officials at a juvenile prison in Wisconsin are struggling with a massive staff shortage.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the staff shortages at the Lincoln Hills School for Boys means COs are forced to work long hours and operate with skeleton crews to keep the prison running 24 hours a day. In addition to the shortages, the prison is also facing multiple lawsuits and investigations involving the treatment of juvenile inmates.
At the Lincoln Hill and Copper School for Girls, which sits on the same campus, 67 of 313 positions are unfilled. Twenty-six employees are also missing work due to injuries or other reasons, leaving a total of 93 jobs unoccupied.
Corrections officials are also having trouble retaining employees at a time when unemployment is low and COs make a starting wage of $16 an hour. Employees are often forced to work 16-hour shifts with little notice, often leading to them to quit.
In 2016, Lincoln Hill employees and other facilities received an 80-cent-an-hour raise. But CO Julie Giers said more needs to be done to retain employees, such as giving them back the collective bargaining powers they lost in a law signed by Gov. Scott Walker in 2011.
“I don’t care about the pay,” Giers said. “What I care about is this past week I worked 72 hours in a six-day stretch.”
In the past, employees have said the volatile conditions at the Lincoln Hills prison have left many employees fearing for their lives. Records show the prison has had between 30 and 67 unfilled positions during each month of this year.