TDCJ bonus program walkoffs means taxpayers out $1.4 million

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A state bonus program designed to fill vacancies in Texas' high-turnover prisons failed last year to keep nearly half the recruits who got a bonus on the job, an ABC-13 review of records found.

The $4,000 bonus is provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice when recruits commit to working at least one year in any of 16 prisons with hard-to-fill vacancies.

Critics of the program point to what they say is a flaw: The money is given to the newly minted prison guards within weeks after the recruit starts at a prison -- not after they have served the year.

Over the course of the program, which began as a $1,500 bonus in 2008, a total of 3,441 recruits have walked off the job before a year was up, many taking the bonus with them, records show.

In all, taxpayers are owed more than $1.4 million in bonus money, records show.

And there are few provisions to get the bonus money back if recruits walk off the job before their year-commitment is up. TDCJ officials say they can keep the recruit's last paycheck, and give their names to the state comptroller, but little else besides sending the former employee an invoice.

"They were definitely excited about the extra four grand," said former TDCJ Sgt. Keith Rodney, who used to train recruits. "Whether or not they would stay, that was always a question."

In 2013, a total of 478 former guards who got the bonus left before the year was out, a 45 percent walk-out rate, according to state records.

And over the course of the program, 35 percent of recruits who took the bonus left before the year was out.

Officials with the TDCJ, in which around 25,000 prison guards oversee some 150,000 prisoners, defend the program and say it works.

"What we have seen is that it's an effective program," TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said.

Clark said the program has helped retain prison guards. Instead of 42 percent of prison guards quitting pre-bonus, guards now resign at a rate of 34 percent each year. He also noted the TDCJ has gotten money back from quitting recruits by mailing them invoices and setting up payment plans.

The bonus would be an ineffective draw if the TDCJ held on to it for a year, Clark said. Moving and finding a place to stay in the oil-rich, rural regions of Texas where these prisons are, is a pricy prospect, he said.

"You're giving them up-front money so they can go and establish themselves in areas where, honestly, it's difficult to establish yourself because the housing market is difficult," Clark said.

The bonus is a point to contention with some. Prison guard and local Huntsville union chief Lance Lowry described the bonus system as "putting a Band-Aid on a bullet hole."

"The bonus system is a waste of money and a waste of taxpayer dollars," Lowry said.

Lowry argues that better pay is needed across the board. A recent union survey showed that the top reason guards quit is pay.

In 2013, a total of 8,327 employees left the TDCJ.

That better pay is needed is a rare point of agreement between labor and prison management. The TDCJ has asked the state legislature for a 10 percent raise for correction officers next year.

As it stands now, starting pay for guards is $29,200. After 10 years, that same correctional officer will hit the pay ceiling of $38,800. One author recently labeled the pay akin to "Waffle House wages."

Many prison guards are wooed away by higher-paying oil field jobs.

"You can have a correctional officer leave and make two to three times more than their salary," Clark said.

But working conditions are a close second behind pay as a reason for prison guards quitting, Lowry said.

Guards don't get enough training to prepare them for working in a prison, which he describes as "hell on earth."

"It's like walking into a convection oven where there's a rock concert going on," he said.

Texas guards train for five weeks before walking into a prison. Most states have a longer preparation regimen, Lowry said.

"I worked with a guy and on the first day at work he left after a lunch break," Lowry said. "I never saw him again."