Prison warden encourages worker to fill system vacancies | News, Sports, Jobs

Good benefits, good pay-including the opportunity for overtime-clothing and training provided, job security, but most importantly, the satisfaction of doing something for your community, are what someone can expect from working in the county’s prison system.

“That rewarding feeling is going to be different for everybody, but it’s the satisfaction of helping and supporting your community,” said Ryan C. Barnes, deputy warden of security and operations at the Lycoming County Prison.

“It’s at times known as a thankless job. You’re behind the walls. You’re behind the bars. Nobody sees you outside doing what we do, so that reward is often not public. It’s more of an internal reward, a feeling of helping your community and helping those that you live around and with,” Barnes said.

Right now the county’s prison system has about 14 vacancies that need to be filled, including correctional officer positions, relief officer positions and a full-time Licensed Practical Nurse position. A full complement of correctional officers at the prison is 50.

Since the mission of the prison system is to provide security to the community, operating with lower staff numbers is a problem.

“Our mission is to provide a level of safety and security to the public as well as staff and inmates with the facility. As our staffing levels go down, there is the chance or the opportunity that those levels of security go down,” Barnes said.

“Staff are working more overtime. They’re working longer hours. They’re not as fresh in hour 12 or 13 as they were in hour two or three, which could have the ability to impact something negative happening within the prison,” he added.

The general duties of a correction officer include monitoring, observing and supervising inmates.

“Those tasks include making security rounds, cell searches, checking for contraband, prevention of contraband, taking inmate counts throughout the day-there are three counts on each shift that they’re responsible for-as well as just interacting with the inmates,” Barnes said.

“Again, making the security rounds, becoming familiar with the inmates that are in the housing unit that you’re responsible for-enforcing the rules of the facility,” he added.

The minimum qualification for an entry level position at the prison is a high school diploma.

“We have hired and interviewed people with further education than that. We will hire people with bachelor’s degrees but it’s not a requirement of the job and experience isn’t necessary,” said Warden Brad Shoemaker.“We do hire people that come from other industries. We’ve hired people from the gas industry, hired people from local businesses, and also people that are just coming in may be trying to further their employment status after getting an education in criminal justice,” Shoemaker continued.

He stressed that a criminal justice education is not a requirement.

Those who are hired to work at the prison are trained in-house initially. The first four weeks are all on-the-job training. Then within the first year, all employee corrections officers are sent to the Department of Corrections academies at Elizabethtown for another four weeks of training as required by the state, Shoemaker explained.

Traditionally there has been an unofficial policy that job applicants be 21-years-old, but Barnes noted that they have made exceptions in the past and accepted younger job seekers.

“It takes the right person to be under 21 and to be able to go and work in that environment at that young age,” Barnes said.

“It can be done, but again, it takes the right person and through the interview process we make the determination if we feel they’re ready to take that step into the field of corrections or not,” he added.

The right person for the job would be someone who is a good communicator, because, Barnes said, they have to be able to communicate with fellow staff members, the inmate population and other staff throughout the prison.

“Besides that, a good decision maker. Someone that can make quick decisions at times under stressful situations,” Barnes said.

“Good ethics. Good morals. Somebody that’s able to think quickly on their feet, that’s able to spend a good portion of their day on their feet. It’s not sitting down and just observing, there’s a lot of interaction,” Shoemaker explained.

He stated that a lot of people make the mistake of thinking the job is like what they see on television.

“Those are entertainment-based. A lot of what happens within the prison is very routine. There’s a schedule. It’s a 24/7/365 operation. Every hour of the day, seven days a week is filled with something-there’s something happening in the building,” Shoemaker said.

In terms of pay rates, the starting pay for a corrections officer is $18.10 per hour with full county benefits. For the nursing position, the rate is $23 per hour.

One thing that prison officials want potential job applicants to know is that jobs at the prison offer job security.

“The one thing we tell people is there are some jobs where they’ll work you a lot and then they lay you off. We don’t ever lay anybody off. It’s a unique environment. It’s not meant for everybody, but it’s certainly an environment where a person can gain valuable experience,” Shoemaker said.

“We’ve had people that make a career out of these positions. We’ve had people that use this as their entry level into the criminal justice system and move on to other entities. We’ve had correctional officers that have moved into other jobs with Lycoming County, within the state system, within the federal system, the State Police, the local police departments,” he continued.

“There’s a lot more chances for opportunities,” he added.

Jobs within the prison system are posted at Indeed or through CareerLink. There is a link through the county’s website: Lyco.org.

This story was taken from a video posted on the Sun-Gazette YouTube channel, where it can be viewed in its entirety.