{"id":32473,"date":"2020-03-05T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=32473"},"modified":"2020-03-04T18:49:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T00:49:47","slug":"oklahoma-lawmakers-consider-a-raise-for-hundreds-of-prison-employees-skipped-over-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2020\/03\/05\/oklahoma-lawmakers-consider-a-raise-for-hundreds-of-prison-employees-skipped-over-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Lawmakers consider a raise for hundreds of prison employees skipped over last year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29658\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1240px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-29658 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/04\/Page-and-Mullaney-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1240\" height=\"926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/04\/Page-and-Mullaney-2.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/04\/Page-and-Mullaney-2-500x373.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/04\/Page-and-Mullaney-2-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/04\/Page-and-Mullaney-2-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/04\/Page-and-Mullaney-2-620x463.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jason Page and Paul Mullaney inside the state Capitol in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/a8aedf55-0a6b-48da-a6ef-ae53280814d7?dark=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p><p>Low pay is at the center of Oklahoma\u2019s struggle to keep its prison employees.<\/p><p>Six-year veteran corrections officer Paul Mullaney quit over pay and working conditions just months after lawmakers approved a $2.00 raise for prison employees. He worked in the mental health unit of Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington.<\/p><p>The extra money wasn\u2019t enough to keep him.<\/p><p>\u201cIt was just crazy. I mean it was just dangerous and &#8230; I (had) enough,\u201d<\/p><p>Corrections officers are often the people Department of Corrections leadership and employee advocates point to when they argue for pay raises.<\/p><p>Agency leaders have long said low pay is a key obstacle in recruiting and keeping the officers who maintain order in Oklahoma\u2019s overpopulated prisons.<\/p><p>State prison employees are among the lowest paid in the nation. Department of Corrections data shows in 2018, a new correctional officer started with less than $13.00 per hour.<\/p>\n<h3>Higher pay across the country<\/h3><p>According to the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/oes\/current\/oes333012.htm\"> Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, the national median wage for corrections officers in the same period was about $21.00 per hour. Lawmakers took note of the disparity and increased pay.<\/p><p>First, they raised wages for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news9.com\/story\/37842576\/governor-fallin-signs-historic-teacher-pay-state-employee-raise-deal\">state employees in 2018<\/a>. Then, in 2019, they increased pay for corrections officers by $2.00 dollars per hour bringing starting pay to $15.74 per hour.<\/p><p>But, Mullaney didn\u2019t think that was enough money to ask an employee to work 12-hour days each week in hazardous conditions.<\/p><p>\u201cThose wages, that\u2019s junk,\u201d Mullaney said. \u201cYes, your health benefits are great and everything, and that\u2019s fantastic. But, you also have to live too and it takes money to live.\u201d<\/p><p>But, other corrections workers who stayed at their jobs got an unpleasant surprise when the second raise started hitting people\u2019s paychecks. Legislators made a mistake. Hundreds of people were left out of the increase.<\/p>\n<h3>Hundreds left out of the raise<\/h3><p>State Rep. Justin Humphrey was one of the authors of a bill that paved the way for the 2019 raise for corrections officers. He wanted the additional money to go to people who work around prisoners regularly.<\/p><p>But, the Department of Corrections has a complicated way of labeling its employees.<\/p><p>\u201cAnd what happened when those bills got (taken) over \u2026 that language got removed,\u201d Humphrey said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32478\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32478\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-1920x1237.jpg\" alt=\"Justin Humphrey stands beside his chair and a calf skin hangs behind him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-1920x1237.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-672x433.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-768x495.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-150x97.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-620x399.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Humphrey-edit-e1583365212591-1677x1080.jpg 1677w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Rep. Justin Humphrey wrote a bill to help the employees who missed the raise but his bill failed before it reached the House and Senate floors.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>If you read a list of the agency\u2019s job titles, you can\u2019t always tell the people who work around prisoners from people who don\u2019t.<\/p><p>In an effort to make the legislation clearer, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oklegislature.gov\/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=SB1045&Session=1900\">the state Senate added language<\/a> listing the specific jobs people had to work to get the raise. But that left at least 432 people out of the full raise.<\/p><p>Humphrey said he found even more people working around prisoners who didn\u2019t get additional pay. He found farm employees and people working in the state\u2019s correctional industries \u2013 people even his initial bill didn\u2019t include.<\/p>\n<h3>Corrections asked for new legislation<\/h3><p>Department of Corrections Director Scott Crow said in a board meeting last year that he wanted to fix the problem.<\/p><p>But, Crow said his attorneys warned him that the agency could invite a discrimination lawsuit if it gave raises to the employees who missed out. Fearing litigation, the agency and its board asked the Legislature to fix the problem this session.<\/p><p>That\u2019s what Humphrey wants to do. He filed a bill that would have corrected the pay inequity, but a House committee chose not to advance the legislation.<\/p><p>A bill in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oklegislature.gov\/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=SB1424&Session=2000\">Senate could accomplish the same thing<\/a> if both chambers approve it and the governor adds his signature, but it\u2019s unclear if it will succeed.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32477\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32477\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-1920x1659.jpg\" alt=\"Bobby Cleveland sitting in an office at the state Capitol. A framed Arizona Cardinals jersey hangs behind him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1659\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-1920x1659.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-672x581.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-768x664.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-150x130.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-300x259.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-620x536.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2020\/03\/Cleveland-edit-1250x1080.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bobby Cleveland says the state needs to offer a raise to the at least 432 employees who were skipped over. He says it&#8217;s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>\u2018Slap in the face\u2019<\/h3><p>Meanwhile, the officers who didn\u2019t get the raise will continue to work alongside those who did.<\/p><p>Former legislator Bobby Cleveland says it\u2019s a \u201cslap in the face\u201d for those employees.<\/p><p>\u201c(It\u2019s) like you don\u2019t count. You\u2019re not important,\u201d Cleveland said.<\/p><p>Cleveland is the director of Oklahoma Corrections Professionals \u2013 a prison employee union. He says after Gov. Kevin Stitt approved the 2019 raise, the Department of Corrections should have adjusted the way it identifies staff, so no one would be left out of the pay increase.<\/p><p>\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to do anything other than to get them what they deserve,\u201d Cleveland said.<\/p><p>Even though hundreds of current employees were left out of the raise, the additional money could be helping the agency recruit new corrections officers.<\/p><p>According to Director Crow, the agency saw an average increase of 63 people applying to become corrections officers each month after the 2019 raise.<\/p>\n<h3>Mullaney moved to Washington<\/h3><p>Paul Mullaney feels for the officers he left behind when he moved to Washington State, but he says he\u2019s happier in the certified nursing assistant job he found there. It pays more, and he says it\u2019s less stressful.<\/p><p>\u201cThe cost of living is a little higher, but I don\u2019t even care,\u201d Mullaney said.<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State officials want to help hundreds of corrections employees who didn&#8217;t get a raise last year. It&#8217;s unclear if a bill that could fix the problem will be approved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":32478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1221,1219,223,1222,1220,1218,1209],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32473"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32488,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32473\/revisions\/32488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}