West Virginia Regional Jail Authority Director Joe DeLong says the idea of adding correctional officers to save money will get a chance to be proven.
DeLong proposed to lawmakers amid a tightening budget during this year’s legislative session adding corrections officers would actually result in a savings to the cash strapped agency because it would reduce their overtime expenses.
DeLong says the Tomblin administration has agreed to a pilot project to prove it.
“We did a study on this statewide and what we decided to do was add some additional correctional officers at one facility,” he said. “Those officers have been hired, they have recently completed training, and the new schedule with those officers is going to begin June 2.”
The officers will be added to the staff at Charleston’s South Central Regional Jail. DeLong says the decided to let the lockup in Kanawha County be their test plot for the program. He says after a month it should start to prove effective.
“Every indication we have it will save the Regional Jail Authority and the counties that pay the regional jail authority by eliminating massive amounts of overtime,” he said.”When we have all the data on how successful it’s been, we’ll be able to fully analyze the data.”
DeLong expects that will be in July. He says if it proves to be as successful as they think it will be, they’ll add the additional officers at other regional jails around the state.
DeLong says while it will amount to a huge savings on overtime expenses, it will also give the regular workers time off to rest.
“The jails face a lot of lawsuits and a lot of liability and a high amount of workplace injuries that come along with fatigue,” he said. “Those costs come form a lot of indirect costs, not just personnel.”