SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s Department of Corrections is now asking all of its correctional officers to work mandatory overtime to cope with short-staffing.
Richard Piatt, the department’s director of public affairs, said there are currently 57 vacancies at the facilities in Salt Lake City and 12 at the Central Utah Correctional Facility that they need to fill to be fully staffed. Until then, correctional officers are being required to work one mandatory overtime shift per pay period.
Piatt said part of the reason for all the vacancies is because as the prison population grows, they have had to open up and staff a new section of the prison. However, it also comes at a time when they are dealing with some specific staffing issues…