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Alaska’s DOC Was $24 Million Over-Budget Last Year, Spent Most on Overtime
Loaded on March 1, 2026
published in Prison Legal News
March, 2026, page 59
The state Department of Corrections (DOC) spent $24 million more than the Alaskan legislature approved last year, a historic high. According to Alaska Public Media, $20 million of the additional budget request was earmarked to pay overtime for guards at the 13 prisons and jails that the state operates. Data provided by the DOC to lawmakers shows that, in 2025, 15 guards earned over $100,000 in overtime pay, on top of their regular salary and benefits. Two of these guards logged over 2,000 overtime hours, with one earning a total of $225,000.
The guard vacancy rate in Alaska sits at around 11.5% and the DOC’s budget has increased to $437 million in total, a 46% increase since 2019. As PLN previously reported, nationally, there are nearly 31,000 prison guard vacancies each year, and the understaffing crisis shows no signs of abating any time soon [See: PLN, Sep. 2025, p. 1]. One of the consequences of the crisis is that it’s not uncommon for states to pump millions into filling the gaps. In New York, 2,000 guards were fired in the wake of a statewide 22-day wildcat strike in March 2025, a move that exacerbated an already shortstaffed system. As a result, the guards who remained earned overtime at 2.5 times their regular pay for several months and the state spent roughly $1 billion to deploy the National Guard into its prisons.
Source: Alaska Public Media
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