County commissioners back major pay increase for corrections officers

LACONIA — Officers who work at the understaffed Belknap County Corrections facility would receive a 25% increase in pay under a plan that has the backing of the county commissioners.

The commissioners voted Monday in favor of the increase with the hope that higher pay will help the department retain and recruit officers for the facility that houses both inmates awaiting trial and those who are serving time for misdemeanor crimes.

The union representing corrections officers must formally accept the plan. In addition, it needs the approval of the county delegation, which is required to vote on any cost increases associated with labor contracts.

“This was the reasonable and prudent thing to do,” said County Commission Chair Peter Spanos, who noted the corrections department is having “as much or more difficulty in retaining and recruiting people” as is the county nursing home.

Spanos and fellow Commissioner Hunter Taylor voted in favor of the pay raise. Commissioner Glen Waring was absent from the meeting, but Spanos said he was certain that Waring would also have voted in favor of the plan had he been at Monday’s meeting.

The higher pay “will accomplish or at least help to make our staff feel valued and want to stay here and will hopefully help us recruit people,” County Administrator Debra Shackett said as she outlined the proposal to the commission.

Delegation members were notified Tuesday, and started working on scheduling a meeting to take up the proposal, Shackett said.

The corrections department is authorized to have 24 officers, but has been struggling to fill vacancies that occur as officers leave to take higher-paying, less-stressful jobs in the private sector. By the end of this week there will be seven vacancies in the department, Corrections Superintendent Adam Cunningham said.

He said with that low level of staffing, he would have to seriously consider ordering officers to work double shifts, a situation which would almost certainly worsen morale.

Last month, Cunningham told commissioners that the facility was getting close to having a critical personnel shortage.

Cunningham and Spanos said running the facility short-staffed raises safety concerns, both for the officers and the inmates.

Cunningham said that given the rate of turnover, he has only three officers with more than four years of experience. Five officers were hired this year and five last year, with another two hired in 2020, he noted.

Corrections officers are currently paid between $20.03 and $29.56 per hour, depending on qualifications. Shackett said if the increase in pay is approved by the delegation, the change will take effect Sunday, Oct. 16. She said the increases will cost the county $80,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Dec. 31.

Spanos said there would be no need for a supplemental appropriation to offset the cost.

The higher pay will make corrections officers’ pay comparable to what deputies in the sheriff’s department are paid.

Cunningham said the problem is not limited to Belknap County. He said state prisons and other county corrections facilities are also struggling to retain staff and find candidates to fill vacancies.