Deaths jump during prison staffing shortage
The Tennessee Department of Correction reported this week a spike in accidental deaths and overdoses in state prisons in the fiscal year that ended June 30, more than doubling the number of such deaths in previous years. Officials are saying that understaffing is likely to blame, at least in part.
During a Senate State and Local Government Corrections Subcommittee meeting Wednesday, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Tony Parker stressed the importance of addressing the prison staffing crisis. Correctional officers currently have a vacancy rate of 44% in Tennessee. The department finished the 2020-21 fiscal year with a hiring decline of 38%. The officers that Parker does have are working on weekends and their days off to fill the shifts, he said.
Parker said 2020-21 saw a spike in accidental and overdose deaths he believes may have been preventable if more correctional officers had been there to intervene. From July 1, 2020, through June 30, a total of 32 accidental and overdose inmate deaths occurred, compared to 12 during the same period from 2019-2020, 11 in 2018-19 and just one in 2017-18.
Parker said his department is also seeing more drugs in the prisons.
“It’s an ongoing battle,” he said. “It’s a daily battle to fight these drugs in our facilities.”
State Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, pressed Department of Correction representatives on how the drugs are getting in when visitations paused during COVID-19. Parker said that visitors are only one of the three main explanations for how drugs slip into a prison, in addition to being thrown over the fences and employees breaking the law. “There’s no question that we on occasion have hired people that we shouldn’t have to fill vacancies,” Parker said.
The department announced Wednesday it would be opening up parttime employment to include candidates who have no previous experience. Previously, TDOC would only consider former correctional officers with a minimum of one year of full-time service. The hiring push has also included employee and volunteer recruitment events and sign-on, referral and retention bonuses.
Another strategy has been to decrease capacity. Parker took about 1,600 beds out of commission temporarily as a way to reduce risk. But in the Prison Policy Initiative’s “State of Emergency” coronavirus report, Tennessee received an F report card, largely for failing to reduce prison population by more than 10%.
“We weighted that section most heavily for failing to expand compassionate release and accelerated release,” said Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for PPI. “We wrote this report to call attention to the fact that despite elected leaders saying they’re doing all they can, states have left really simple policy options on the table.”
Perhaps the biggest absence will be Parker himself, who is retiring this fall. The staffing issue will fall onto someone else’s shoulders. Before thanking Parker for his service, Chairman Ed Jackson, R-Jackson, said of TDOC employees, “They’re having to miss their children’s ball games, their vacations. They’re just tired. We’re listening and trying to do something about it.”