The state would use $2.5 million from its general fund to recruit and retain state Department of Correctional Services staff under a bill heard by the Appropriations Committee Feb. 10.<\/p>\n
Introduced by Syracuse Sen. Dan Watermeier, LB733 is intended to help the department recruit and retain staff in areas that face shortages. At least 10 percent of the money would be set aside to recruit staff\u2014including psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses\u2014to the department\u2019s Division of Health Services.<\/p>\n
The department would be required to send quarterly reports to the governor and the Legislature on how it uses the money, what impact it has on recruitment and retention and how the department would use such funds in the future.<\/p>\n
In a recent survey of corrections staff by the Office of Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System, Watermeier said, 68 percent of respondents said giving annual raises would be the biggest change the department could make to better retain employees.<\/p>\n
Watermeier said the department had 203 vacant positions in December, 62 of them at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution. When asked about coworkers who had quit their jobs, he said, 42 percent of respondents said that pay was the main reason. <\/p>\n
The proposed increase in funding would help reduce staff turnover and improve morale at all of the state\u2019s correctional facilities, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that we need to help the Department of Corrections, specifically at Tecumseh, not next year or [in] five years but now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Mike Marvin, executive director of the Nebraska Association of Public Employees, spoke in support of the bill but said he hopes most of the money would be used for retention instead of recruitment. He said the department hired approximately 600 employees last year, but the state\u2019s correctional facilities still are understaffed because of high turnover.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Correctional Services has no problem hiring employees,\u201d Marvin said. \u201cThey have a problem retaining employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corrections Director Scott Frakes spoke in a neutral capacity. He said the department is trying to address staff shortages by hiring a full-time recruiter and using social media, advertising and job fairs. Frakes said he cannot unilaterally raise employees\u2019 salaries or offer them bonuses because any changes in compensation must be negotiated with the employees\u2019 union. <\/p>\n
\u201cI struggle at this time with how to utilize these funds in an efficient way to permanently address this complex issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
No one spoke in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The state would use $2.5 million from its general fund to recruit and retain state Department of Correctional Services staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-18450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appropriations","tag-sen-dan-watermeier"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18450"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18452,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18450\/revisions\/18452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}