Republican Gov. Bill HaslamNASHVILLE – State Correction Department officials are asking Gov. Bill Haslam for $8.3 million in new funding to give a 5 percent raise to prison guards and probation officers in hopes of slowing widespread departures.
Commissioner Derrick Schofield told Haslam at a budget hearing Thursday “if we were funded for this, this would push us up to about No. 3 with the surrounding states.”
The department has been hemorrhaging correctional officers across the state, especially at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning, Tenn., and Bledsoe County Regional Correctional Complex in Pikeville.
Guards have complained about low pay and plummeting morale stemming from changes in work schedules and the reclassification of certain inmate-on-guard assaults. Correctional officers complain the change made their work more dangerous.
Schofield has denied major problems, attributing many job losses to a rebounding private sector. But after an independent audit questioned the assault classifications, Schofield told the governor he is moving to implement changes. The auditors also said state prisons are, by and large, operated safely.