The Sedgwick County Jail is experiencing critical staffing levels, with the deputy to inmate ratio more than double the national jail standard recommended average of one deputy to 30 inmates, Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter says.
The jail now is staffing one deputy for about 69 to 75 inmates, according to Easter, who plans to ask the Sedgwick County Commission on Wednesday to increase starting pay for detention deputies by more than $4 an hour, from $19.34 to $23.50.
The jail is budgeted to have 228 detention deputies but currently has 113 unfilled positions, according to Easter.
Easter said the low staffing can present a danger to the safety of both deputies and inmates.
"We have to provide an environment that is safe for the inmates to be in along with our deputies, but we also have to provide the security to create the environment," Easter said.
The jail has had to cut back on programs and the amount of time that inmates are allowed out of their cells for safety reasons. "Mentoring and volunteer programs aren't really taking place at this point," Easter said.
Programs that are still taking place and do not require a deputy's presence include Christian Ministries Organization, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and GED programs.
"If this gets worse and we pretty much have to lock down everybody, those programs are going away. That would be a tragedy," Easter said.
"We've had to change the way we do business inside here because we can't let so many inmates out that are among one deputy. If something happens, the amount of deputies responding is not sufficient," Easter said.
Easter told commissioners last month that the staffing crisis comes down to pay and burnout as a result of working long hours.
"We're at a point now that we can't properly staff the jail. We have people leaving because they're tired of working so much. ... When you have jobs that are not the most desirable jobs, sometimes you have to pay those folks a lot more to get them interested," Easter said.
The starting pay for a detention deputy is $19.34, after a $3 raise in April 2021, followed by a 2 percent pay increase in July 2022, Easter said.
In order to attract and retain people, Easter said, pay should be boosted to $23.50, and a long-term pay plan should be installed to "again build trust with the employees on what wages will look like in the future," Easter said.
"The key to this is not just raising the pay because then that causes compression. We have what's called a pay plan. In that plan there's a 5 percent step every year ... and so you have to raise that pay the same amount every year to retain people," Easter said.
Salary compression happens when there is little difference in pay between two employees regardless of their experience or seniority.
"This gives us the opportunity to take our pay plan out there and show people to say, 'Look, if you come here as a detention deputy for $23.50 an hour for 10 years, this is what your pay will be, which is close to $80,000 a year' — that's pretty good pay," Easter said.
Staffing shortage
The jail typically tries to have 70 assigned deputies for first, second and third shifts. After accounting for days off, that number sat at 50.
Number provided by Easter show current staffing numbers:
- First shift: 33 deputies assigned, 23 after days off
- Second shift: 32 deputies assigned, 22 after days off
- Third shift: 31 deputies assigned, 20 after days off
The jail on average can house between 1,300 to 1,400 inmates at any given time. As of Monday morning, the jail had 1,318 inmates between the main facility and the annex, with another 171 housed outside of the county, sheriff's office spokesman Ben Blick said in an email.
Four patrol deputies are working each shift inside the jail seven days a week. Easter said that has been going on for about a year now.
"We cannot continue with these numbers, so we have to do something to attract people here. ... And the way you attract people is to pay them a wage that brings them here," Easter says.
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