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The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland Tennessee (TN) and Bradley County Tennessee (Tn).
Of Bradley County Tn.
FEBRUARY 2005
The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland and Bradley County Tn.
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Feature Writers
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HOME
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HEALTH
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READ ALL ABOUT IT
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Jail staffing needs inflated
Tennessee Corrections Institute may re-evaluate staffing requirements.
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by Pete Edwards
Bradley County Commissioners are faced with funding up to 29 additional staff to
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run the the new Bradley County Justice Center or face not being certified by the Tennessee Corrections Institute. But an assessment of the Official Staffing Analysis revealed possible inflated manpower requirements by the Sheriff.
The TCI analysis obtained by The People News is calculated utilizing staff at their posts for less than 50% of the shift. Staff at the jail work 12 hour shifts for fourteen days in every 28 day period but the number of staff required to run the jail assumes that employees will spend less than 6 hours a day actually at their posts. According to the official analysis, of the 2190 possible working hours a year, a jail staff employee is available
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for duty for only 1073 hours. The lost hours are due to:
360 hours for military
160 hours training
104 hours holidays
96 hours sick time
96 hours vacation
48 hours reconigition
[believed to be a miss-spelling for recognition]
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24 hours funeral leave
109 hours for meal breaks.
Plus an additional 1 hour break each shift.
[The numbers used for the beak time figures seem to be miscalculated, as minutes were added to the hour column.]
Tennessee Corrections Institute Assistant Director Peggy Sawyer, said in a telephone interview with The People News that the number of hours a jail staff employee would be available for work was decided by Bradley County Sheriff Dan Gilley and his staff, and the TCI staffing requirements are based on those figures. Sawyer said, she thinks it may be prudent under the circumstances, for TCI Inspector Barry Suttles to conduct another staffing analysis to confirm the calculations. Also, she said, it may be possible for a county official to get a separate staffing needs assessment from the Jails Division of the National Institute of Corrections.
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What Do You Think?
SURVEY
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Sheriff Dan Gilley, has become almost unapproachable by the media and has contact with the county commission only through his staff. As he does not returns calls from The People News it was impossible to get comment on the apparently inflated figures in the TCI Official Staffing Analysis.
The hours deducted for military are presumably referring to National Guard training but the hours are deducted for each staff member regardless of his being in the N.G. or not. Also, usually a National Guard member volunteers his time outside working hours.
Recognition and funeral leave is calculated for every employee and meal breaks in addition to regular breaks are counted as work time, which is not the standard of industry.
The TCI also conducted an analysis for an 8 hour per shift system which included the same deductible hours. This shift arrangement seemed to be a more costly proposition figuring in a weekend shift and less time per man at his post.
Controversy has surrounded the hiring of jail staff since it was discovered that Sheriff Gilley ignored the Tennessee Corrections Institute's advice of opting for an Unofficial Staffing Analysis as a recommendation for staffing levels instead of the official and binding path he chose to take. Although Gilley says the Bradley County Commission made the decision, a search of commission minutes and reporters notes can find no mention of the fact.
Not staffing the jail to the levels required in the TCI analysis prevents the new jail from being certified, exposing the county to possible lawsuits. The Sheriff's department budget has doubled in four years and is set to increase even further, even though 100 federal prisoners are being housed to defray costs
The cost of running the $16 million justice complex is causing concern among county commissioners faced with raising the property tax for an increasingly expensive facility that is now being driven by a mandate from the state.
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Do you think the Tennessee Corrections Institute's staffing analysis accurately reflects actual staffing needs at the new Bradley County Jail?
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The People News
PO Box 3921
Cleveland TN. 37320
(423) 559-2150 Fax 559-1044
Editor-Publisher, Pete Edwards
Copyright 2005 (All rights reserved)
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