Hardin, Turner Study Department of Corrections' Employee Pay
OKLAHOMA CITY – Reps. David Hardin, R-Stilwell, and Tim Turner, R-Kinta, held an interim study before the House Public Safety Committee examining pay for correctional officers, support staff and administrators at the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Hardin chairs the committee and had an almost 40-year career in law enforcement. "Having a strong and dependable corrections workforce is an important part of maintaining public safety across our state," Hardin said. "We need to understand the challenges the Department of Corrections faces in recruiting and retaining employees, as well as what is working in Oklahoma and elsewhere. The information gathered through this study gives us a clearer understanding of those challenges and a stronger foundation for considering how we address them moving forward." Turner, a member of the committee, spent more than two decades in law enforcement. "Every day, our correctional officers walk into an environment that most Oklahomans will never experience," Turner said . "They face dangerous situations, unpredictable behaviors and tremendous responsibility. Yet far too often, their compensation does not reflect the risks they take or the sacrifices their families make. And we cannot forget our support staff. From medical personnel and administrative employees to maintenance workers, food service staff, and everyone who keeps these facilities operating, they are essential to our mission. Adequate pay is not simply about rewarding employees. It’s about recruitment, retention, safety and accountability." The lawmakers invited Justin Farris, director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC), to give an overview of the department, current pay and challenges to recruiting and retaining correctional officers, administrators and support staff. "Staffing levels at ODOC are critical," Farris said . "We have recognized this for a long time" Farris said when he began as a correctional officer in 1999, each prison had two to three correctional officers per housing unit. Now, there is one officer per unit, traditionally. "This is not at all how we want to operate, which is why I'm here today. I'm here not only to highlight our dedicated and hard-working staff but also to advocate for them. They are an integral part of public safety, and really the thankless part that often goes unnoticed. Yet they are no less dedicated to protecting public safety and building a stronger Oklahoma than any other law enforcement agency in our state." Farris said over the last several years the department has worked to improve the culture of the work environment, and they are seeing the result of that. "Retention rates are up, but we need a pay raise for all of our employees to keep up with this," he said. "We're not only losing our security staff to other states and entities that pay more, we're also losing experienced support and administrative staff to other state agencies that offer higher salaries for positions with less supervisory responsibility." Farris said a pay raise would help stabilize the workforce and undergird the improvement efforts the department has undertaken. Since 2023, the department hired over 3,300 employees agencywide. However, they lost more than 3,100 during the same period. That leaves the department with a gain of just 194 employees. Currently, agencywide, the department has 641 open positions. Jeannine Morton-Brown, director of Human Resources with the department, showed the disparity of pay between Oklahoma and surrounding states. Correctional officers between tiers two and four earn on average between 18% and 21.7% less than peers in surrounding states including Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas. Only in tier two is the state higher in pay than Arkansas. It is less in all the additional surrounding states. She also discussed the gap in DOC pay versus other state agencies. Donald Thurmond, who serves as the chief of security at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and Jackie Brannon Minimum Security Unit in McAlester, asked study attendees to ask themselves what $21.48 an hour – the starting pay for most Oklahoma correctional officers – would purchase in today's economy. He then graphically explained what an officer is asked to do for that wage. "We ask them to supervise individuals convicted of violent crimes," he said . "We ask them to intervene in fights. We ask them to confront individuals armed with homemade weapons. We ask them to respond when an inmate attempts to take their own life. We ask them to remain professional when they're threatened, cursed at, spit on or assaulted, and we ask them to protect the lives of the very people who may have just attempted to hurt them for approximately twenty-one dollars and forty-eight cents an hour." Thurmond said he's watched good, experienced correctional officers walk away from careers they love because they could not afford to stay. Additional presenters included Mike Thompson, director of the nonprofit Safe Inside Project, who discussed improving life and work behind prison walls, and Mary Babcock, director of Human Resources for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She described efforts the department has pursued that has resulted in better compensation, better retention of staff and an overall safer environment for officers and inmates. Turner closed the study saying , "Respect must reflect in our actions, our budgets and ultimately in our paychecks of those that are serving behind those walls. These employees aren't asking to become wealthy. They're asking to earn a fair wage and provide for their families and know the state they serve values their sacrifices. As we move forward to the next legislative session, I hope we remember the testimony that we've heard today and we recognize that adequate compensation isn't just an employee issue, it's a public safety issue, it's a retention issue and a responsibility that we have as state leaders." The entire study can be viewed on the House website under News & Media, live proceedings, then search the calendar for Oct. 21 Public Safety starting at 1:02 p.m.