Board OKs higher jailer salaries
Starting pay now equals deputies'
By Robert Boyer / Times-News
December 17, 2007 - 10:48PM
Raises are coming for many of the jailers who work at the Alamance County Detention Center. Sheriff Terry Johnson hopes the salary increases will lead to more jailers and a safer jail.

On Monday, the Alamance County commissioners agreed to raise the minimum starting salary of jailers to $29,212 a year, the same starting salary as for deputies.

Johnson requested the salary bump. A higher starting salary will attract more and better applicants and keep some jailers from taking higher paying jobs at jails in bordering counties, Johnson said.

The raises will cover 64 Detention I positions and cost about $165,000. The money will come from dollars already budgeted for the jail and the Alamance County Sheriff's Department.

Jailers currently working as Detention I officers now make about $26,000 to $27,000 a year.

The bulk of the budget transfers, $125,000, will come from the utility budget. Of the remaining $40,000, $20,000 will come from the sheriff's tool and equipment budget and $20,000 will come from the jail's capital outlay budget for jail equipment. Johnson expects the raises to cost just over $162,000.

A major jail expansion and the commissioners' decision to implement the 287(g) program to deal with illegal immigration has dramatically increased the size of the detention center and jail population over the past year or so.

The county receives money for each inmate it detains from other agencies. Staffing, though, has failed to keep pace with the growing number of inmates.

The county jail has 137 detention officers and needs at least 16 more to be staffed adequately, Johnson said.

The jailer shortage is causing security problems that Johnson fears could lead to unsafe conditions and security breaches. The breaches, he says, could result in serious injuries, killings and expensive lawsuits.

Just last week, Johnson said, inmates attacked a guard and began strangling him. Help was slow in coming because staff was spread thin.

"I assure, right now, we're getting close to not being able to have a secure facility," Johnson says. One lawsuit will be 50 times as much (as the $165,000 for the raises). And I can see that coming."

The current low starting salary is a "tremendous problem" when it comes to hiring more jailers and keeping veteran jailers. Compounding the problem is Guilford County's $34,000-a-year-plus starting salary for jailers. Orange County and some other nearby counties also offer salaries higher than Alamance County, Johnson says.

Unless he can secure more jailers, Johnson said he faces this choice: continue to run a short-staffed jail and face the risks or send inmates back to the agencies that sent them.

"I am not going to put these guys' lives on the line when I know I don't have enough staff to staff that jail," the sheriff said.
After the meeting, Johnson acknowledged that the salary increase might not be the long-term solution to the jail's staffing issues.

But, as he pointed out to the commissioners, Johnson said he didn't know what else to do.

Over the past five months, the jail has taken in nearly $2.17 million in revenue from housing federal prisoners, and should take in more than $378,000 with the 225 inmates now in the jail over the next month or so. The roughly $2.55 million in detainee revenue should put the jail on pace to meet budget projections.

According to County Finance Director Amy Weaver, the county budgeted $4.5 million in detainee revenue through end the end of the 2007-08 budget year.

For now, the jail gets $61 per day for inmates from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $66.38 per inmate per day from the U.S. Marshals.

Johnson said he is asking the agencies to increase those payments. He expects them to do so, but doesn't know how much the increase will be.

The commissioners unanimously approved Johnson's request to shift funds to provide for the raises. But at least two board members questioned whether it was the best option.

"I'm not 100 percent sold it's going to solve your detention problems," said Commissioner Chairman Larry Sharpe.

"I'm not for line-item transfers like this," Commissioner Ann Vaughan said. But she consented after saying that the staffing woes appear to be an "emergency situation."

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