Officers At WCDC Being Ripped Off

I had to bring this Post back up because the comments just keep coming in, months later.

If you check the county's web site under employment and click on corrections you will find the following information. According to the job listing non certified officers start at 28,000 and certified at 30,000. This is far below the stating pay of surrounding counties and the state system.

All that aside, within one year the non certified officer has to successfully complete the entrance level correctional academy. After completing the academy the officer is certified to work as a correctional officer in the state of Maryland. Going by the job listing the newly certified officer should receive a 2,000 dollar pay raise. All other agency's reward their employees with a much deserved pay raise. Not so at WCDC. WCDC officers have to wait another full year to receive their pay raise. This is in direct violation of their advertised job listing. No where is this written down or told to the officers of WCDC.

Now in contrast to the Sheriffs Department, their officers receive an automatic pay raise upon completion of the police academy.

WCDC has a hard enough time attracting qualified applicants and even harder time retaining good officers. When will the powers in charge wake up and make the changes needed to retain good officers. I know that the general public wants to house and feed inmates as cheaply as possible. Also out of site is also out of mind. Everyday officers at WCDC are doing overtime. 10 to 12 officers everyday. In the past six months 15 officers have left the employ of WCDC. Only 7 have been hired with 2 new officers included that started last week.

Now if I have any of these facts wrong, please correct me. I demand that the administration of WCDC respond to these allegations because they are not responding to the officers when they ask these very questions. The only answer ever given is "I'll get back to you", but nobody ever does.

If the command staff who claim to back the officers will help with problems such as these instead of worrying who has the best parking spot or watching their computer screens(remember Major Moore, red goes on black) would support the line officers, more officers would stay.

It costs more to replace an officer than it does to retain in the long run. The main idea seems to be that its cheaper to pay overtime than it is to pay benefits. The truth is that sick leave rises because officers are being burned out. The warden has been heard to say"If they don't like it they can leave". Guess what 3D, they must not like it for they are leaving faster than you can hire them.