Sheriff: Jail staffing at a ‘crisis level’

Sheriff Chad Billeb told Marathon County supervisors last week that the county jail is at a “crisis level” when it comes to a shortage of corrections offi cers – a problem that could have some very costly ripple effects on next year’s budget.

Speaking to the Public Safety Committee at its Sept. 12 meeting, Billeb said the jail is currently short 14 corrections officers, which requires patrol deputies to come in off the road and work overtime hours in order to fill the minimum number of shifts required by the state. He said just two applications were submitted for the 14 openings.

“If we continue to lose staff at the rate that we are, we are going to have to make some very hard decisions, and they are very expensive decisions,” he said.

One possible result of the staffing shortage is the closure of the county’s juvenile detention center, which is doing “incredibly well” in generating revenue, Billeb said. However, the adult jail is considered a “core function” of the sheriff’s department, and must be kept open to comply with state law, he noted.

Another possibility is that the sheriff’s department would have to house “a vast majority” of its inmates in other counties’ jails, Billeb said. Relocating up to 200 inmates per day to other counties would cost about $3.3 million, he noted.

“We currently budget about $700,000 to do that, so it’s imperative that we get our staffing where it needs to be so we can run both facilities,” he said, referring to juvenile detention and adult jail.

Jail administrator Sandra La Du said, under state law, the jail must have a minimum of eight corrections officers on duty from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and six on from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“In general, we’re operating at the minimums all the time,” she said.

In order to maintain the minimum staffing requirements, Billeb said the sheriff’s department spent about $100,000 on overtime for patrol deputies between last October and May.

Billeb said a shortage of corrections officers is a problem for sheriff’s departments across the state, but he’s trying to buck that trend and avoid having to pay for out-of-county inmate placements. He said he’s worked hard to present a balanced budget proposal for next year, but that’s difficult to do with such pressing staffing issues.

“I’m not coming in here to spew gloom and doom, but I think it’s important that you understand that we are at a tipping point with our staffing,” he told supervisors. “If we can’t get people in the door, we’re going to have a problem in the new year.”

County administrator Lance Leonhard said the county needs to build a budget for the sheriff’s department that allows it to be competitive with other counties.

“Wages and benefits matter, and there are costs to chipping away at those things,” he said.

Billeb noted that the state recently raised its starting wage for prison guards to $33 per hour and the county board in neighboring Wood County is considering increasing its starting hourly wage to $26. Marathon County currently pays $23 per hour for new correction officers, which can be hired as young as 18 after they complete a five-week academy and pass physical and psychological tests.

To find new corrections officers, Billeb said the department has been working with a Marine Corps recruiter, who is offering his expertise free of charge. He said department representatives go to local schools to recruit and have also scoped out potential applicants at the National Guard armory in the past.

Billeb said the department also promotes some of the perks of being a corrections officer, such as a pension plan that can allow people to retire as young as 50 and a work schedule that offers 77 paid days per year off without having to use vacation. La Du also noted that Marathon County is unique because it does not normally force officers to work on their scheduled days off, as other counties often do.

At the same time, however, the nature of the job – working with inmates who have behavioral and psychological problems – can lead to a lot of stress and burnout, especially when the jail is short-staffed, Billeb said.

“It’s a tough, tough job, and it wears on them,” he said.

Billeb said a lot of corrections offi cers leave the career entirely, going to work for businesses like Kwik Trip or Greenheck, that offer competitive wages and less stressful work environments.

Still, both Billeb and Leonhard described working in corrections as a “noble profession” that appeals to those who want to do “honorable work.”

“You can do some really great things for people as a corrections officer,” Billeb said.

Leonhard also noted that the sheriff’s department is not alone in trying to recruit and retain workers within a restricted budget, calling it a “microcosm” of the county as a whole.

“We need to maintain our competitiveness with respect to wages and benefi ts,” he said. “The new world is one

where people will leave.”

In other business:

Deputy administrator Chris Holman updated the committee on the county’s progress toward designing a proposed regional morgue and raising money for the facility. Venture Architects has finished the first phase of the design process and will soon enter the second phase, which will produce documents needed to bid out the project in January, as anticipated, he said.

The forensic center is estimated to cost $14.8 million, and the county is hoping to raise $3 to $4 million from the community in order to fill in gaps left by county, state and possible fedcheck eral funding. Leonhard said the county plans to officially kick off its fundraising campaign at a Sept. 20 event at Northcentral Technical College, which is in negotiations with the county to provide land for the facility.

The committee endorsed a resolution to designate $370,200 for phase 2 design work, which will come out of a $2 million American Rescue Plan Act allocation previously approved by the board.

Holman said the county is working with an architect to develop plans for upgrading kitchen facilities for the county jail so that a new vendor, Summit Food Services, can start using them to prepare meals for inmates. Currently, the kitchen staff at North Central Health Care is making meals for the jail, but that arrangement is not considered sustainable longterm.