Faced with staff shortages that drive up costly overtime, sap staff morale, and make it more difficult to maintain safety at the Lackawanna County Prison, Commissioners Bill Gaughan, Matt McGloin and Chris Chermak have approved the hiring of 12 full-time and seven part-time correctional officers.

The positions are an exception to the hiring freeze through the end of 2024 that the commissioners recently imposed to mitigate the county government’s inherited cash-flow crisis. And, due to the expected overtime reductions, the newly filled positions are expected to save more money than they cost.

According to Warden Tim Betti’s projections, total compensation for the new correctional officers will cost $298,821 through the end of this year, while reducing overtime costs by $338,256.

If the same staffing levels were to continue, the total compensation for the new hires for all of 2025 would be $941,001, whereas overtime savings would come to $1.444 million, the warden calculated.

Before approving the hires, Gaughan and McGloin obtained a financial analysis from PFM, the county’s financial management consultant.

“The staffing need seems to be acute enough that the operational risks outweigh the savings you would get from leaving positions open, especially if there is more attrition,” wrote Gordon Mann, PFM managing director. “Our recommendation is that you move forward with the hiring ….”

Beyond the savings, Betti noted the need to reduce overtime for the sake of the staff.

“I cannot put a price on the positive effects this would have on morale, not to mention a significant reduction in staff burnout,” he said.

Because all shifts at the prison must be staffed, the administration mandates overtime when an insufficient number of correctional officers are available. Because a high percentage of COs are able to reject those mandates due to provisions of the federal Family Medical Leave Act, relatively few officers must work many double shifts, adversely affecting morale and driving burnout. That, in turn, contributes to staff attrition and staffing shortages.

The prison employs 182 correctional officers, 87 of whom are able to reject mandated overtime due to what’s known as “intermittent” FMLA exceptions.

In July, the inmate population averaged 770 each day, including 158 federal prisoners.

“When we adopted the hiring freeze, we recognized and noted that there would have to be exceptions for critical positions,” Gaughan said. “There is no doubt that these CO positions fit that description. They are fundamental to the safety of inmates and the prison staff, the efficient administration of the prison, and fair distribution of the workload among the correctional officers. We carefully analyzed the numbers in-house and through PFM, and are convinced that the hirings are far more beneficial and cost-effective than leaving the positions open.”

New full-time officers’ base pay rate is $49,512 per year; the part-time base rate is $19.10 per hour.