The 2006 legislative session was an unmitigated success for the Arizona Department of Corrections and the officers who work in the prisons, department administrators and union officials say. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to be done.
Though the session ended less than two months ago, Corrections Department Director Dora Schriro says she is already turning an eye toward issues the Legislature needs to address to increase the department’s efficiency and boost public safety.
One of the top issues next year will be reversing an unintended consequence of several years of pay raises for corrections officers: some supervisors now make less than the guards they supervise and the gap between the average salaries of line officers and supervisors has decreased significantly. Known as “pay compression,” Ms. Schriro says the narrowing disparity in those salaries makes it difficult to attract people to fill the supervisory positions.
Tixoc Munoz, executive president of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, says the lieutenants and captains harmed by the pay compression deserve to have their salaries increased because the prisons couldn’t run without their management.
“To bring quality supervisors, you must pay them,” he says. “That’s the bottom line.”
In the past year, Ms. Schriro said, front-line corrections officers have seen their base salary rise by about $6,800.
“It’s a significant positive change,” she said. “It also points out how far behind [other agencies] they lagged — and we are not yet up to market rate.”
The base salary for corrections officers now stands at $30,897, which is still $1,500 less than officers get paid at Maricopa County jails. It’s $4,000 less than what Pinal County pays its officers and more than $8,000 less than the starting salaries for officers at the state’s federal prisons.
“These agencies have been ahead of us for four or five years,” Mr. Munoz says. “We’ve got a long way to go to catch up.”
Inquiries for prison jobs up
Mr. Schriro says the department has already seen tangible results from making officer pay more competitive. In July, there were 25 percent more inquiries into corrections officer jobs and a 66 percent increase in the number of applicants who were tested.
“That means we’re getting more inquiries from a more qualified candidate pool,” she said, adding that some officers who left the department because of low pay have also returned.
There are also 20 percent more people in the new training classes at the Correction Officer Training Academy and a total of 50 percent more officers-in-training in the entire COTA program.
“You see this net increase at every point in the process,” Ms. Schriro said.
Retired officers can return
Another pool of potential employees opened up because of a statutory change [H2482, Laws 2006 Chapter 241] enacted during the session that will allow retired corrections officers to return to the department full-time and still draw their pension. Ms. Schriro said the department has sent letters to 1,600 recently retired officers letting them know they can return to work without jeopardizing their pension.
Although uniformed personnel have received substantial pay increases, the salaries for support staff — secretaries, plumbers, doctors, nurses and the like — haven’t seen the same improvement. Both Ms. Schriro and Mr. Munoz say the issue is on the short-list of priorities for next session.
“They’ve got the same issues we do,” Mr. Munoz said. “We want to make sure that the next [department] pay raise includes everybody.”
Chuck Foy, a representative of the Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs, says he is going to work with Mr. Munoz, Ms. Schriro and Governor Napolitano to ensure things keep improving for the department and its employees.
“One of the most important functions of government is pubic safety,” he said. “The folks that provide that service need to be taken care of.”