St. Joseph County Jail short 25 correction officers; sheriff says better pay needed

The county jail’s budget authorizes 145 correction officers, and the sheriff has proposed a 2019 budget that calls for approving a $1,725 raise for each of those positions — roughly $250,000 in total.

Grzegorek pitched the raises when he presented his 2019 budget proposal for the jail and police department at a meeting earlier this month with a small group of county officials. He said the shortage of correction officers is mainly because they’re being promoted to county police officers or leaving to take higher-paying jobs at other police agencies.

Up to 118 county police officers are authorized to be hired, Grzegorek said, and there are eight open spots. But he is reluctant to promote correction officers to those positions because of the staffing shortage at the jail.

“I still need to promote yet this year from the jail, but right now it’s very difficult when we’re running double shifts every day. We have five to 10 people (working mandatory shifts). It got so bad that people were calling in sick,” said Grzegorek, who will finish his term as sheriff at the end of this year.

Grzegorek said to address the staffing problem, he temporarily changed a policy so that correction officers don’t have to work 171 hours during a 28-day period to be eligible for overtime.