The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department is looking to hire corrections officers for two facilities that house inmates as it faces a severe shortage of qualified jailers to guard its inmate population.
As of Friday, there were 33 full-time equivalent vacancies for corrections officers for the Downtown jail/pre-trial facility and the Detention Center at 4777 88th Avenue, according to Sheriff’s Department data.
Currently, there are 68 jailers employed at the Downtown facility overseeing 130 inmates; meanwhile 41 corrections officers work at the Detention Center, in direct supervision over 520 inmates, said Sheriff David Beth. Ideally, at full staff, there would be about 142 full-time corrections officers at the jail and the Detention Center, he said.
The nearly 23.2 percent full-time vacancy rate is an issue that needs to be addressed. The public’s safety is at stake, he said.
“We’re at a critical situation here with our correctional officers staff,” Beth said. “We’re trying to figure out what we need to do.”
Beth said a number of ideas under review include looking at releasing those incarcerated on “low-level” crimes, thereby reducing the inmate population.
“If they’re not violent and if the judges allowed them to have Huber (work release) they may be ones we don’t (keep in jail),” Beth said.
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