Correctional facilities are essential components of the justice system, tasked with housing individuals while maintaining security, safety, and compliance. Efficient workforce planning is critical to ensuring that correctional facility staff can meet these demands without excessive overtime or burnout.
Understanding Correctional Facilities
A correctional facility is a place designed to house individuals who have been convicted of crimes or are awaiting trial. It encompasses prisons, jails, detention centers, and similar institutions where security and rehabilitation intersect.
While both correctional facilities and jails house individuals, the primary difference lies in duration and purpose. Jails typically hold people awaiting trial or serving short sentences, while prisons (a type of correctional facility) house inmates serving longer sentences. The term “correctional facility” reflects a modern focus on rehabilitation, security, and reintegration, which is why jails and prisons are often collectively referred to as correctional facilities today.
Workforce Challenges in Correctional Facilities
Staffing a correctional facility presents complex challenges that require constant balance and precision. Officers and staff work around the clock, often under demanding conditions influenced by fluctuating inmate populations and strict compliance requirements. These pressures can strain resources and make it difficult to maintain adequate coverage without overextending personnel.
Manual shift creation can take hours and often fails to adapt to sudden changes, such as staff absences or population surges. According to a recent analysis by The Marshall Project, understaffing and overtime are common in correctional facilities, with some institutions reporting average overtime exceeding 15% of total hours worked.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual wage for correctional officers was $52,650 as of May 2023, underscoring the importance of maximizing workforce efficiency. Moreover, companies experiencing high turnover rates often face annual replacement costs equaling 25% to 50% of an employee’s salary, adding significant financial pressure to already strained operations.
Modern Approaches to Workforce Management
To address these challenges, correctional facilities are increasingly turning to automated workforce management and scheduling tools. These solutions provide real-time visibility into staffing levels, simplify shift creation, and reduce errors. Allowing leaders to achieve measurable benefits:
- Reduced overtime and operational costs: Automation can significantly decrease unnecessary overtime and manual scheduling errors.
- Agile scheduling: Automated tools allow managers to quickly adjust shifts in response to sudden absences or unexpected population increases.
- Improved data-driven decision-making: Leaders can track KPIs such as staffing ratios, overtime hours, and employee availability to optimize staffing across the facility.
Implementing Employee Scheduling Software
Software designed for public safety and corrections can transform scheduling processes. Indeavor’s employee scheduling platform streamlines shift creation, reduces manual work, and supports complex scheduling rules such as mandatory rest periods or specialty assignments. This enables correctional facilities to operate more efficiently while keeping staff well-rested and compliant with regulations.
Aligning People Operations for Operational Excellence
A people operations platform is an intelligent system that fills the gaps between siloed enterprise systems (HCM, ERP, Payroll, and LMS) with one industrial operations ecosystem interface. Optimizing people operations in a correctional facility goes beyond scheduling. It involves aligning staffing, HR policies, and operational data to achieve broader organizational goals. Key strategies include:
- Predictive workforce planning: Use data to forecast staffing needs based on historical trends and inmate populations.
- Integration with HR and ERP systems: Connecting scheduling data to payroll and HR systems ensures accurate pay, compliance, and reporting.
- Employee engagement and retention: Providing predictable schedules and fair workloads supports morale and reduces turnover.
By aligning people, processes, and technology, correctional facilities can unlock operational efficiencies and measurable ROI. For an average savings of up to $500K annually per 500-employee site through workforce optimization and automation.
Next Steps
Effective workforce planning reduces costs, minimizes overtime, and improves staff well-being. By leveraging advanced tools for scheduling and workforce management, such as Indeavor, leaders can ensure that staffing levels meet the demands of a 24/7 correctional environment.
Beyond immediate operational benefits, strategic workforce planning provides the foundation for broader organizational transformation. By integrating existing systems, corrections facilities can create a sustainable, agile, and high-performing workforce capable of meeting today’s challenges and tomorrow’s demands.
Leaders who prioritize this approach are better positioned to deliver safe, compliant, and efficient correctional operations while advancing their facility’s long-term strategic goals. Schedule a demo to learn more about how Indeavor can optimize your facility.
About the Author
Claire Pieper is the Digital Marketing Specialist for Indeavor. In her role, she specializes in crafting strategic and engaging content, ensuring that customers are well-informed. Claire is dedicated to enhancing the customer experience and optimizing the user journey through Indeavor’s solutions. To learn more or get in touch, connect with Claire on LinkedIn.
