MONTGOMERY — Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) director John Hamm recently detailed the department's ongoing staffing issues as the timeline on a federal lawsuit ticks down.
For years, ADOC has struggled to maintain recruitment numbers in Alabama prisons. The overcrowded nature of state prisons, combined with a lack of sufficient staff, has proven to have harmful effects on prison conditions and security.
Last year, ADOC increased the starting pay for corrections officers by $12,000-15,000, depending on the level of academy training and the security level of the prison. The raises brought slight improvement, as ADOC halted the years-long trend of net losses in prison staff in May 2023.
The staffing shortages were addressed by the federal government in 2019 after the DOJ filed suit against the State, alleging that conditions in Alabama's prisons constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" banned by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The complaint, filed by the Trump administration, cites chronic understaffing, high violence rates (including deaths and sexual assault), inadequate mental and drug treatment programs, and the dilapidated conditions of prison facilities.
On Tuesday, Hamm told lawmakers that the pay raise and a slew of ADOC recruiting events have had a positive impact. However, he confessed to the arduousness of the process, with many candidates proving to be ineligible for the job.
ADOC has held 76 hiring events so far this year, with 47 scheduled through the rest of 2024. Of the nearly 1,200 candidates in attendance, 453 passed the physical ability and agility test. Hamm also noted that online recruiting ads have more than tripled the number of applications submitted to ADOC.
"All the job fairs that we go to, we're targeting these people, asking them to come because once you come to one of our job fairs or hiring events at one of our facilities, it's almost a one-stop shop," Hamm said. "First thing you're going to do is take that PT test I talked about so we know where you are. And second, you're going to take a drug screen; that eliminates a lot of our applicants. And then you're going to go through some other assessments, what we call a strategic threat group assessment; that [in] layman's terms, that's gang affiliation. And it shouldn't be a shock to you that we have gang members actually trying to get employed by the Department of Corrections. One batch of employees that we went through, some four hundred and something, we had about 155 that had gang affiliations."
State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) questioned Hamm on the number of additional correctional officers ADOC will graduate in the coming months. Hamm responded by saying 53 would graduate in September.
Albriton further inquired about the total number of correctional officers ADOC is required to hire based on the demands of the DOJ.
"And DOC, even though we're making process, still somewhere close to 2,000 people short," Albritton said. "In fact, we're under a court under. Is that still correct to have 2,000 additional security people, is that accurate?
"By July of [20]35," Hamm responded. "And if anybody wants to tell me how to do that, I'm all ears because we're doing as much as we can to hire the people. But, unless y'all institute a draft for corrections…"
"We're not stopping. We're continuing. Our personnel, our hiring unit and our recruiters, they're out there every day doing a good job."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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