{"id":7605,"date":"2012-06-26T08:47:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T13:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=7605"},"modified":"2012-06-26T08:52:12","modified_gmt":"2012-06-26T13:52:12","slug":"why-oklahoma-prisons-are-understaffed-and-always-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/06\/26\/why-oklahoma-prisons-are-understaffed-and-always-hiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Oklahoma Prisons are Understaffed and Always Hiring"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jose CABEZAS \/ AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Oklahoma prisons are hiring.<\/p>

Being a guard is a full-time job \u2014 with benefits. And it’s a gig that comes with some measure of job security. So why do public and private prisons have such a hard time filling positions given the current economy?<\/p>\n

“It’s a rough life,” James Reed, deputy warden of the R.B. “Dick” Conner Correctional Center in Hominy tells<\/a> the Tulsa World<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>

<\/p>

Oklahoma prisons are understaffed, which means current guards often have to work double-shifts to keep the facilities at required security levels. The burden of constant overtime is hard on guards and reduces morale, the World<\/em> reports.<\/p>

And prisons are often in remote locations, and the job involves spending a lot of time working around convicted felons in a concrete and steel bunker surrounded by “razor wire and locked\u00a0corridors,” the paper’s Cary Aspinwall writes.<\/p>

Corrections Corporation of America, which operates private prisons in Oklahoma, traveled to a Tulsa hotel last week to set up a recruiting event to bring in new guards to prisons in Cushing and Holdenville. The recruiter tells the World<\/em> that CCA has seen an “uptick in interest,” and is interviewing construction and factory workers who’ve lost their jobs.<\/p>

The World<\/em> interviewed 25-year-old Katelyn Hawkins, a job fair attendee and new mother who was drawn in by the promise of a steady paycheck and benefits.<\/p>\n

“I’d like something I can grow in – but don’t need two to three more years of school to grow,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma prisons are hiring.Being a guard is a full-time job \u2014 with benefits. And it’s a gig that comes with some measure of job security. So why do public and private prisons have such a hard time filling positions given the current economy? “It’s a rough life,” James Reed, deputy warden of the R.B. “Dick” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":7608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,300],"tags":[397,223,225],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605"}],"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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7610,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605\/revisions\/7610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}