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Reduced jail population impacts correction officers
(by Sue Reid - December 22, 2010)
Reduced jail population impacts correction officers
By SUE REID
The collective-bargaining agreement regarding wages for correction officers at the Solon Jail is the one contract yet to be finalized in the city this year.
The wages for the six full-time correction officers are frozen until the city determines the status of how the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department will impact operations at the city's jail, which has had a decline in prisoners, Solon Human Resource Director Thomas Cornhoff said.
Two full-time correction-officer positions were eliminated earlier this year. If the Solon Jail were to get back to full capacity, which is over 30 prisoners, the administration would have to consider additional full-time employees, and the two who were eliminated have certain recall rights, per their collective-bargaining agreement, Mr. Cornhoff said.
Also in light of the jail population decline, Mayor Susan A. Drucker has abolished the two positions of jail supervisor. "I didn't feel we needed two jail supervisors, a jail administrator and two correction officers on duty at the time when we just have one or two prisoners in the jail," she said. "You can't be top heavy in administration."
The two full-time employees in that position are not being laid off, but instead were offered full-time correction-officer positions, Mr. Cornhoff said, and their salary would be under the top of that scale. If they decided to take the positions, effective Jan. 1, it would result in a minor pay reduction, he said.
"I wanted to make sure they had the option to go to correction officers so they were not out of work," Mrs. Drucker said.
Solon's jail population is down, because the county has made a decision to retain more of the prison population, Mr. Cornhoff said. That was done in an effort to reduce the county's cost, he said. "When we house a prisoner for them, they have to pay us."
He said that, realistically, he does not think that the city would know the total impact of the county's decisions until next April, after the first quarter ends.
"We should reconvene with the unions at that time and discuss where we're at and how it looks from the county's standpoint," Mr. Cornhoff said. "That would give us the first three months of the year to have some data as to whether we are up, down or stable in terms of the jail population."
He noted that, in the last three to five months, the population has climbed back somewhat but not to where it was a couple years ago.
Although the area of wages has not been determined, the correction officers' bargaining unit has agreed to random drug testing and health-care portions of the contract, Mr. Cornhoff said.
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