Staffing shortage creates ‘dangerous’ situation in prisons

HARTFORD — A health care staff shortage in the state Correction Department is driving up overtime costs and creating a dangerous situation for staff who say they are often required to work 16-hour days, union officials said.

It’s been 19 months since the DOC terminated the University of Connecticut Health Center’s contract for inmate care, and the department has more vacancies now (139) than it did in 2018 (120).

In the current staffing situation, the work is “more dangerous for the employees, for the inmates, and for the state,” said Pedro Zayas, communications director for the New England Health Care Employees Union 1199 SEIU which represents about 600 to 700 DOC health care workers. “You can see the lawsuits that are coming in.”

Head nurses, nurses, and licensed nurse practitioners are among the 20 top wage earners in the agency based on their overtime pay, according to state Comptroller Kevin Lembo’s OpenPayroll website.

In some cases nursing

staff are making more than physicians when their overtime is added to their base pay. At least three nurses or Licensed Practical Nurses are making twice their annual pay in overtime. The highest paid nurse, whose pay ranks 14th among the highest paid DOC employees, brought in $130,092 in overtime in 2019 above her base pay of $76,667, according to OpenPayroll.

The median income for the 6,732 employees at the DOC is $68,773, according to OpenPayroll.

The highest paid employee is a physician whose base pay was $225,449 in 2019. The physician also received $64,580 in pay from the “other” category, which includes travel and meal expenses and payouts for unused vacation and sick time.

The top paid LPN, who was also among the department’s

top-20 wage earners, made a total of $204,665 in 2019 including $121,357 in overtime above a base pay of $50,316. The next highest LPN made a total of $200,041, including $113,981 in overtime above a base pay of $57,359 and $28,791 in the “other” category.

The DOC is $17 million over budget midway through the 2020 budget year, largely because of overtime and increased pharmaceutical costs, the state Office of Policy and Management reported earlier this month. During the last fiscal year, newly hired DOC Commissioner Rollin Cook told the Appropriations Committee that the agency had a $38-million deficiency, with the bulk of the money directly tied to overtime for health care staff based on vacancies and escalating health care costs.