Correctional Officers Needed
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Arkansas` women`s prison and a men`s prison at Newport have a total of 58 job openings for correctional
officers, and prison officials are eager to fill the vacancies. Prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler says the prisons aren`t what they used to be. They are clean and well-lit and the guards are highly trained. She said the average entry-level salary including hazardous duty pay is 25-thousand dollars a year. She said the jobs at the Grimes Unit and the McPherson Unit are good jobs with good benefits. Prison officials also plan to ask the Legislature for a
budget increase to bump salaries up. The vacancies primarily resulted from the prison system taking on more prisoners with the expansion of the Grimes Unit. There are 42 openings at Grimes, with a prison population of one-thousand and a current staff of 195. There are 16 openings at McPherson, the
women`s prison with a inmate population of 700 and a current staff of 125. Tyler says the understaffing hasn`t presented security risks, but it puts a strain on prison guards who are now having to work overtime and on their days off.
