“Safe Inside” Review Paid for by DOJ Found Prisons Grew Much Deadlier in Five Year-Period
by Michael Dean Thompson
Prisons have become more violent and deadly over the past five years, in a large part due to a nationwide shortage of prison staff. Safe Inside is a nonpartisan, national initiative focused on making prisons safer and healthier places to work and live. Using a grant from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance, Safe Inside plumbed the data from state prisons across the country to examine trends in the correctional workforce.
Prison guards are significantly more likely to experience high rates of nonfatal workplace violence than any other occupation, including cops. From 2019 to 2024, assaults on guards rose 77%. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reports that workplace violence for guards nearly doubled that of police officers between 2014 and 2019. At 149 incidents per 1,000 workers, they saw more than 18 times the national average (8 per 1,000). Experiencing violence adds to the workplace stressors: few opportunities for breaks, hot environments, and minimal access to loved ones via cellphones (which are typically not allowed within the buildings) for stress reduction all add to their challenges. Of course, these are familiar to any prisoner, all of whom receive even less respite. During the same period, prisoner assaults also jumped 54%.
Maria Goellner, the vice president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, told Reuters, “There is not enough personnel to provide the attention that is needed to people in state custody.” She added, “So you do see increased neglect, abuse and violence, and horrendous prison conditions.”
It is not surprising that a sufficient number of well-trained staff is critical to maintaining a safe environment. But Safe Inside points out that understaffed prisons also drive-up costs. There were 23 states that provided data on overtime to the study. For 2024, those states racked up more than $2 billion in overtime costs. Prisons across the U.S. averaged 40% of total state overtime costs being allocated to correctional systems in 2024. In the state of Arizona, where 1 in 4 state employees works for the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Re-entry, $73.7 million in overtime spending represented a 58% increase over 2019.
The heavy reliance on overtime to make up for staff shortages contributes significantly to staff turnover, which in turn leads back into a reliance on overtime. Previously, states relied on encouraging staff to make corrections a life-long career, but early attrition—where guards leave soon after they start—is forcing a shift. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has discovered that simply persuading guards to increase their tenure an average of just four months has the same effect as hiring hundreds of additional guards.
Nevertheless, 63% of TDCJ guards have less than three years of experience. In Florida, 58% of Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) guards had less than two years of experience. In 2025, the DOC secretary told the state budget committee, “That keeps me up at night … the [incarcerated population has] much more experience.”
Meanwhile, the Louisiana Department of Corrections had a turnover rate in 2024 over 200%. In other words, new hires typically quit in less than six months. Contrast that turnover rate to that of new teachers, less than 7% of whom quit in a typical year on average.
States have begun to offer higher salaries in order to address some of these challenges. Keeping in mind that inflation spiked during COVID and prices continue to rise at higher-than-average rates, systems have responded with varying pay hikes. In Georgia, all guards are receiving 58% more per year than prior to 2021. Oregon offers new guards 54% more pay per year than a new guard in 2020. Some states, however, have struggled even to meet inflation levels of the last five years. In 2022, Oklahoma gave all its guards a 30% raise. In comparison, since 2017, inflation has grown 31% and guard pay rose 33% nationally.
Despite the increasing pay, guards are still not paid well. Police generally make much more, around an average of $21,000 more per year. TDCJ’s 39% pay raise still leaves their guards receiving slightly less than the national average for guards. Meanwhile, Texas cops exceed the national average for police pay, a distinction also shared by Florida. New Jersey appears in the reports as an outlier, with guards edging out cops for salary. Not only do they receive the second-highest pay level nationally for guards, behind California, they are seeing their pay rise another 17% between 2023 and 2027. Massachusetts, with the fourth highest guard pay, has guards and cops in a near dead-heat for pay. Dredging the bottom however, Mississippi’s cops do not even come close to the national average for guards, while their guards make even less.
Goellner pointed out that part of the problem is that there are people imprisoned “who don’t need to be there.” Reducing prison populations would obviously reduce the need for guards. According to Safe Inside, prison populations have begun rebounding after the 2021 low. Unfortunately, prison guard numbers still seem to be falling.
Additional source: Reuters
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