Missouri fights correctional officer shortages by mobilizing special units

To address staffing shortages, Missouri’s prison system has special units of correctional officers who are sent to prisons around the state to fill in the gaps.  

They are put up in a hotel, provided transportation or mileage, and meals. 

Travis Terry, with the Missouri Department of Corrections, says depending on the institution, the mobile unit workers have a Monday through Friday or a seven days on and seven days off work schedule.

According to Terry:   “So the reason why those schedules are enticing is because we don’t really have those types of schedules inside of our institutions,” he says. “A majority of folks are working all different types of hours and shifts. And with these mobile units, they know exactly when they’re going to work and when they’re going to be home.”

Terry says the mobile unit workers also make a higher wage than the other correctional officers working in one prison.