Volusia corrections officers plead for safer conditions; manager calls it a union tactic

Volusia County Corrections Officer Kaitilin Clark said she goes to work every day knowing she might die. She stood before the Volusia County Council this week alongside about 10 other officers to plead for safer working conditions.

Clark has been working for Volusia County for six years. When she first started she wasn't scared of her job. That's different now. The response time for backup if something goes wrong, like a fight between inmates or an attack on a corrections officer, takes much longer than it used to, she said.

Recently there was an attack on an officer and it took four minutes before another officer arrived, Clark said.

"So if that guy wanted to kill that officer, that officer would have been dead," she said.

Later in the council meeting, County Manager George Recktenwald dismissed the concerns from the group as a union negotiation tactic. But officers said staffing has reached a level that puts both staff and inmates in danger.

Officers work with inmates who have been charged with misdemeanors and the most serious felonies such as murder. They also work with inmates who have mental health issues.

Officers now are taking on workloads that should be carried by multiple officers, and taking on tasks that put their safety in jeopardy, Clark and others said.

She told the county council that her four children, who range in age from 3 years old to 22, know that she could be killed and that "there are wills" in place.

It's not just babysitting

"It's not just babysitting. It is them (the inmates) trying to take away our lives. They don't have anything to lose, and we do. My kids do. And you guys, I really honestly don't believe that anything's going to happen until one of us dies, and more than likely it's going to be a female. It's a lot easier to overtake me than to overtake them," she said, gesturing to male corrections officers behind her.

County government officials are in negotiations with corrections unions for lieutenants and officers. The officers' union, Volusia Corrections Association #6034, has declared an impasse, which could lead to the county council deciding the dispute. The union is seeking better working conditions, pay and benefits.

The position of officers and those in leadership have repeatedly been at odds. County leaders deny that the jail facilities are unsafe. One senior corrections officer said this summer that conditions are the most dangerous he's ever experienced here.

Officers said that conditions are unsafe for both officers and inmates. County leaders also deny that the understaffing is as serious as officers have said ― corrections officers said this summer that the county is about 70 officers short while the county says the number is about half that.

Corrections Officer Jennifer Gray told the council that the vacancy numbers coming from county leaders are misleading.

"We continue to be short-staffed, but it continues to be hidden," she said. "You see, every time multiple people leave, posts are magically taken off the roster to make it look like we don't need these posts or the people. ... You are being shown a roster that looks filled. You are not being shown what it takes, what it looked like years ago when we had more people and more posts."

Gray said she works in a building with seven officers.

"We continue to house 400 inmates in my building. If an officer (is) in danger, that leaves us one person who can respond to save them. That means if all of us are in danger, no one can respond because we are not allowed to abandon our posts, making the inmates priority over us at that moment," she said.

Gray said part of her duty includes training new officers, and most of them leave within the first or second day "because they see what is happening and it is not worth it to them."

Gray said she's been an officer for 10 years and is working in the same unit she started in, but now she has no partners.

"Because who wants to do a job that they can work at Amazon or Buc-ee's for the same amount of pay?" she asked. "Why would you want to come here where your life is threatened daily? Where you have to constantly be on guard because you may get into a fight or be stabbed while walking in the block, where you get spit on or bit on ― because that happened to me twice this weekend."

Lawsuit aimed at county leaders: Terminated corrections director alleges county violated his free speech rights

Matt Harrison, president of Volusia Corrections Association #6034, read a resignation letter from another officer at a negotiation session on Wednesday. The county's outside counsel, Jeff Mandel, objected to him reading the letter.

The letter was from a field training officer, who described the Corrections Division as being in a "state of emergency."

The criticism isn't new.

Volusia corrections officers raised concerns in 2021 about unsafe conditions from staffing shortages and too much mandatory overtime.

Memos from former Corrections Director Mark Flowers dated July 11, 2019, and April 1, 2022, raised concerns about staffing being at "a critical level."

"As of today's date (April 1, 2022) the Corrections Division has 58 sworn vacancies. When I first submitted my proposal we only had 32 and our staff are not only working mandatory overtime to address the shortages, but need some immediate relief and time off," he wrote.

Flowers, who was fired in January, is now suing the county and two of his former bosses, Recktenwald and Mark Swanson. The lawsuit says that the county retaliated against him for raising concerns about excessive use of force in the jail. Among other things, he said that Swanson and Recktenwald violated his First Amendment rights. The county says the firing was over performance and leadership issues.

A 'negotiation tactic'

Recktenwald, the county manager, called the corrections officers' comments at the council meeting a planned attack by union officials. And he said much of the information they shared isn't true. He said the union made a surprise move by declaring an impasse recently.

"I think what you're seeing today was definitely something that was planned as part of their negotiation tactic. It was done last time," he said.

He added that "that type of talk should be done at the table, the bargaining table."

The County Council could end up deciding the dispute between the union and the county if it's not otherwise resolved, County Attorney Mike Dyer said.

Recktenwald said that the main issue with staffing is finding people who want to do the job and can do the work, and funding is available for more workers. He said the council has increased wages and offered retention bonuses. But corrections officers say they are still underpaid compared to other agencies and that pay hasn't kept up for longer-term staff.

Council members were generally sympathetic.

"I feel like they're ringing the bell about safety issues, and that's a concern," District 4 Councilman Troy Kent said.

Kent said he didn't want to go into detail because the county is in the middle of negotiations.

District 1 Councilman Don Dempsey, a former prosecutor and current private attorney, said "I believe sincerely that there's a problem over there."

He suggested that the county could be more proactive in releasing non-violent inmates involved in victimless crimes such as people arrested on drug possession charges who aren't a danger to the community.

District 2 Councilman Matt Reinhart, a former Volusia County corrections warden, said that overcrowding hasn't been the issue. He said that the number of inmates is down and some parts of the correctional facility aren't being used.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia County jail officers say facilities aren't safe