Don’t Be Fooled 
By Charles J. Kehoe, ACSW, CCE
Consultant, Group 4 Securicor
ACA Past President
August 2008, Corrections Today

Difficult economic times during the first half of 2008 may have caused a decline in state and local revenue that resulted in some local, state and private correctional agencies freezing positions and reducing their budgets and work forces. The 2004 ACA work force report A 21st Century Workforce for America’s Correctional Profession, by Workforce Associates Inc., showed that the retention of correctional officers and other correctional employees improved when unemployment was on the rise. This makes sense when you consider that when jobs are difficult to find, an employee will stay in his or her current position rather than risk an uncertain future in a new job. While any improvement in the retention of workers is welcomed, the facts continue to show that a decline in the turnover rates of correctional employees in most states is only a temporary reprieve.

In a recent article on MarketWatch. com, “Job-Market Worries? Not for Very Long,” Marshall Loeb pointed out that the work force will continue to shrink as baby boomers retire in great numbers. Much of Loeb’s article also reviews the recently publ-ished book by Deloitte LLP human relations specialist W. Stanton Smith. In Decoding Generational Differences, Smith points out that between 2003 and 2008, an estimated 24 million baby boomers will leave the work force — and most will be from managerial, administrative and executive level positions. Generation Xers, being a smaller pool of available workers, will not completely fill the void in the active work force that has resulted from the retirements of the baby boomers. Loeb states, “The pool of available workers among those age 25 to 44 will have decreased by 7 percent from the level of 2003, resulting in a significant labor shortage.” It is interesting to note that the decline in this  age group was mentioned in the 2004 ACA report. Smith also confirms the serious shortage, “In fact, every year for the next 30 years, there will be fewer young people to replace retiring workers. The worker shortages will continue into the future, as average annual growth of the work force is projected to hover at around 1 percent through 2015.” Thus, while some may see a decline in the turnover rates as encouraging news and believe the worst is behind us, Smith and other authors continue to sound the alarm. 

In January 2003, when the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) awarded a grant to ACA to develop a strategic plan for the correctional work force, BJA and ACA anticipated some of the upcoming challenges for correctional agencies. That plan has moved

forward as ACA has launched several initiatives to address the work force challenge. In addition, BJA has funded other work force projects in com-munity corrections and adult local detention. Currently, the Center for Innovative Public Policies is coordinating a BJA-funded project that is examining the challenges of recruiting and retaining qualified jail personnel. The end product of this grant will be a “toolkit” for sheriffs and administrators of adult local detention facilities that can be used when developing strategies for recruitment, retention, succession planning and leadership development.
 
In the second phase of the ACA work force project, also funded by BJA, ACA targeted positions in correctional health care, mental health and correctional education to understand recruitment and retention challenges. ACA also opened the Center for the Correctional Work Force of the Future to coordinate work force activities. In addition, through ACA’s close affiliation with Edward Barlow Jr., president of Creating the Future Inc., four specific strategies have been identified to address recruitment and retention challenges. The first is to extend the orklife of older, soon-to-retire workers or to identify newly retired workers from other occupations and careers. The second is to attract younger workers; the third is to reduce turnover by improving the correctional workplace environment; and the fourth is to “develop a bench” of future correctional leaders. These strategies can best be accomplished by making corrections an attractive career. The simple truth is that corrections will not help offenders without a highly qualified, well-trained, respected work force that finds the challenges of correc-tional work rewarding.