Minnesota News

Pioneer Press: Prison staff putting in a lot of hours as openings remain unfilled

Barbed wire tops a fence separating two parts of Stillwater prison.
Barbed wire tops a fence separating two parts of Stillwater Correctional Facility in Bayport, Minn., on Friday, Jan. 25.
Evan Frost | MPR News

Minnesota prisons are coping with a chronic staff shortage by frequently asking — and often forcing — workers to pull double shifts, according to the Pioneer Press.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections shelled out nearly $12.3 million for more than 262,000 hours of overtime in fiscal year 2019, according to DOC data. That’s a notable rise from the $6.9 million it spent for roughly 150,000 hours the year before. About 80 percent of the overtime hours and pay last fiscal year went to the nearly 2,000 corrections officers who guard the state’s 10 prisons.

Read more at the Pioneer Press.

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