Union: Correctional officer shortage at dangerous level at Hazelton prison
Sep. 23—MORGANTOWN — Correction officers from the Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton formed a picket outside Woodburn Shanks Pit BBQ in Morgantown to protest the Bureau of Prisons hiring practices, which they accuse of "causing a labor shortage."
"We've had job fairs, they did one here in Morgantown, West Virginia just a few months ago and they had 60 applicants that qualified," Justin Tarovisky, a corrections officer at the facility, said. Tarovisky is also union president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 420. "But, a lot of them are being disqualified for clerical errors in their resume."
The grievances center on the Consolidated Staffing Unit in Grand Prairie, Texas. Tarovisky said that applications are filed through USAJobs.gov, however the applications don't go to the prison to which an applicant has applied to work. Instead, they go to the unit located in Texas. There, the unit processes applications before sending the ones who make the cut onto each prison to make the hiring determination.
However, protesters say the issue is that the unit is too selective, as it filters out applications that might have a typo or don't fit the hiring algorithm. That's how out of 60 qualified applicants at the job fair a few months ago, only a few made it to the hiring stage.
"Not even a half, not even a tenth. A few," Tarivosky said. "You have this job fair, you provide the tutelage to do it and then you have the Grand Prairie, Texas administrators or managers out there that disqualify the staff. Over silly things. We need to bring these people in."
With officers either transferred or promoted out of the prison, new officers aren't joining the ranks fast enough to replenish staffing numbers.
In an email statement, the Bureau of Prisons wrote that they and the Hazelton Complex are committed to ensuring appropriate staffing levels to maintain the safety and security of employees, incarcerated individuals and the institution. Donald Murphy, from the Office of Public Affairs, said that staffing at Hazelton is one of the agency's top priorities. However, he characterized the responsibility of hiring as belonging directly to the prisons.
"The Consolidated Staffing Unit is a component of the Human Resource Division which oversees the announcing and qualification of all internal and external applications for various positions with the Federal Bureau of Prisons," Murphy wrote in an email.
He further clarified by lifting instructions from the job postings found on USAJobs.gov which states that qualifications lacking required documents or don't follow instructions will be eliminated.
"They are lying beyond belief, I'm asking for direct hiring authority," Tarivosky said. "Senator (Shelley Moore) Capito even requested direct hire for the prisons in the CJS bill's language. The Consolidated Staffing Unit is failing us on getting staff hired."
The Commerce, Science, Justice and Related Agencies Bill is an appropriations bill to the tune of roughly $70 billion which,if pass, would provide money for the prison system.
The consequences for an understaffed prison can be dire. Tarivosky said that although officers are scheduled for a typical 40 hour work week, with staffing shortages that can quickly become 80 hours a week. Officers are routinely mandated to come in during shortages, meaning they must stay on duty since there is no relief available to replace them for the next shift.
Kevin Seifert is the treasurer of the union as well as a correctional officer at Hazelton. He said that officers often work 16 hours a day and sleep for 8, leaving no time for their families.
"It's awful, several officers have come to me and other board members and stewards," he said. "They say to me, 'I'm getting ultimatums from my wife or my husband, you don't come home enough or we're going to have a divorce, you're not going to have a family.' It's devastating."
The long hours also wreak physiological havoc on the officers. Tarivosky said sleep deprivation leads to symptoms akin to intoxication. One officer was recently in a car crash. Fortunately, he was not injured. However, the shortage also decreases the physical safety that officers experience on the job.
"If something doesn't get done, we're gonna have a fatality because of so much chaos in the lack of hiring," Joe Rojas, a corrections officer from Florida, said. He drove here to support the Hazelton union. "It's just an extremely dangerous situation. And if something does not happen we are gonna have a fatality amongst our staff."
Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com
