Utah Department of Corrections sees staffing surge after shortage

DRAPER — The Utah Department of Corrections reports that after a period of dangerously low staffing, numbers have rebounded.

According to Executive Director Jared Garcia, the department was down more than 400 officers just a few years ago.

"I would call our staffing shortages severe," he said. "When we arrived, being down over 400 officers at the time was extremely challenging."

The department created a plan to address the issue.

On Tuesday, 37 cadets graduated from the preservice academy, a number Garcia said may be the largest the department has seen in recent years.

"Now we are actually fully staffed to our capabilities," Garcia said. "We still have a good amount of attrition related to retirements or people taking other career paths. We actually have a waiting list for people who want to join our department right now."

The department attributes a significant increase in staffing to better compensation, improved advertising for recruitment, a culture shift and a smoother application and hiring process.

"It's very exciting that we're hiring a lot of young people to join this profession," Garcia said. "It creates new challenges when it comes to training, but it also is a tremendous opportunity for us to teach this new generation of officers on how to do corrections a little bit differently, how to do it better."

Garcia said there are still budget issues that have forced the department to hold around 50 officer vacancies.

"We're entering a tough budget year," he said. "We had a tough budget year at the Legislature last year. We anticipate the same."

He said the department is working with the state to get more. Garcia said inflation impacts the department, too.

"We are continually looking at our staffing levels, working with our stakeholders, our legislators to see if we need to add more staffing to our facilities," Garcia said.

He said the department is also trying to be efficient with the resources it does have.

"There are other government agencies that absolutely need funding as well … as we look for opportunities to be more efficient with our resources, we want to make sure that we're effective with those resources, that we're responsible with state dollars and funding," Garcia said.

He called the staffing turnaround monumental.

"If you're looking to join this profession, please reach out to us," Garcia said. "Although we do have a waiting list, we do constantly have attrition due to retirements and other things."

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