U.S. prisons are experiencing staffing shortages as officers retire or quit due to the risks associated with COVID-19.
Corrections officers work under dangerous conditions for low wages daily and now have the added risk of exposure to COVID-19, which has contributed to widespread staff shortages. At the same time, prisoner populations are on the rise after briefly dropping off at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would have liked to stay till I was 50,” said former Texas corrections officer Lance Lowry, “But the pandemic changed that.”
Lowry served as a corrections officer for 20 years and quit to take a truck driving job after seeing coworkers die of COVID-19.
Unions representing corrections officers speculate vaccine mandates will lead to unvaccinated employees quitting and the staffing shortage will become worse.
“There are dozens of reasons to leave and very few to stay,” said Brian Daw, national director of nonprofit One Voice United. “Understaffing, poor pay, poor benefits, horrendous working conditions. … Officers and their families in many jurisdictions have had enough.”
One corrections officer told Georgia lawmakers that on a “good day” there are six or seven officers per 1,200 prisoners. The officer said that there aren’t enough medical workers and that he was recently assigned to oversee 400 prisoners by himself.
“All the officers … absolutely despise working there,” the officer who did not wish to be identified said.
A shortage of corrections officers makes prisons less safe for everyone, including the inmates. Around 93% of the front-line guard positions are filled, though there are around 1,000 vacancies, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Some prisons in Georgia say they have 70% of their positions vacant, while three prisons have closed and vacancy rates in Florida have doubled. Guards have complained about understaffing at federal prisons while facility teachers and dentists are put on security shifts.
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