State-wide correctional officer shortage linked to low pay

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – $26,000 a year– that’s the average salary of a correctional officer in Mississippi. According to salary.com, the average salary in neighboring states like Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana is anywhere from $38,000 to $43,000.

“Statewide yes, there’s a shortage of correctional officers, and for good reason. It’s not one of your higher-paying jobs, it’s not one of your most glamorous jobs, and it’s one of the hardest jobs that you can do in the law enforcement world,” said Winston County Sheriff Jason Pugh.

Pugh said his guards make just a little over minimum wage.

“We’re starting correctional officers out at a little over nine dollars an hour, and that’s not, in the world we live in, terribly good money,” said Pugh.

The average income for a Wal-Mart employee in Mississippi is almost $10 an hour, and it’s a much safer environment.

“I think a lot of people that say they might be interested in doing that for a living are going to say, ‘well let me go look at something else,” said Pugh.

However, Pugh said prison guards have a few positive incentives to consider.

“One of the best benefits that a correctional officer has working in a county regional correctional situation like we have in Winston County, like Leake and Kemper have, is that the guard can draw state retirement and start building into the state retirement system, and that is a big plus for them… However, the paycheck is not there, and at the end of the day when you have to go to the grocery store and pay a light bill, that is what you look at during the day,” said Pugh.

The prison system is also dealing with another kind of shortage. A former Parchman inmate said for every 60 guards, 50 of them are female and only 10 of them are male.

“I think they need more male guards because you go over 5,000 males down there or more that’s been locked up for years,” said Pugh.

Pugh said this may be because men have more opportunities for employment.

“A younger man can, a lot of time, go off and work at a construction site, you know, do concrete work, steelwork, and you know, work on the road and that sort of thing and make money, whereas maybe a female officer doesn’t have that same opportunity to go off and do that kind of manual labor, so that’s probably why you would see more of that,” said Pugh.

Pugh said he’s hoping Governor Tate Reeve’s newly elected administration will increase pay across the board for law enforcement, especially correctional officers.

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