About five years ago, Illinois offered early retirement packages to state employees.
That deal ended up eliminating more than six thousand state workers, including those from social service agencies like the Department of Human Services and the Department of Corrections. Now some of the workers left behind say that's created some potentially dangerous on-the-job situations.
We talked with some leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees...that's the union for state workers.
And KHQA's Melissa Shriver visited with workers, who say their safety is riding on getting more help.
Do you fear going to work?
Sgt. Shawn Conley, a corrections officer with the Western Illinois Correctional Center in Mt. Sterling said, "I don't fear going to work, I think it's my personality but I fear more for other people's safety. These people are an extension of my family."
Sgt. Shawn Conley is a a correctional officer at the prison in Mt. Sterling. He says he knows firsthand the dangers of low staffing. He was assaulted in the prison cafeteria during mealtime last November.
Sgt. Conley said, "At the time of my incident there were 150 inmates in my side of the dietary. I was assaulted, hit and kicked in the head approximately 20 times by an inmate."
"The inmates know if you look out, they know nobody's there," said Sgt. Conley. "They know where there used to be 5 people, there's 3. They see that and they look up and things are going to happen until we get staff where it should be."
Union president Ken Kleinlein agrees. He says one officer will be in charge of 448 inmates at certain times during a shift.
Do you think the problem would be solved if you had more staff?
Kleinlein said, "I don't think anything will ever solve the problem, we knew when we took these jobs we would be at risk but I do believe it would immensely help control the inmate population."
The story is the same here at the Illinois Department of Human Services Treatment and Detention Center in Rushville. The population here are the worst of the sexually deviant criminals and are not fit to be released into the public.
Cynthia Dougherty is a Security Therapy Aid -2 and Union President at Rushville's Detention Center. She says low staffing levels are a threat to workers. Dougherty says a resident tried to assault one of her female staff members 4 times before someone heard her calls and managed to help her.
Dougherty said, "We have one person in dietary with 30 residents sometimes and in the kitchen these residents who are deemed to be violent people are using knives to prepare food and you have one staff trying to monitor all of this."
Dougherty added, "These residents know they look around and see one female in an area that's pretty much secluded from the rest of the building and the opportunity exists --these are sexually violent persons and they take the opportunity when it presents itself and in our facility it presents itself daily."
Do you worry for yourself or for others to go to work? Yes I worry every day. Because the opportunity is so available for someone to be attacked male and female.
The state workers we talked to told us the Governor increased the number of workers statewide in the Department of Corrections by 250 last year.
But the department ended up short again after losing around 30 corrections officers through retirements.
We also talked with Senator John Sullivan about the staffing problems state workers say they face. He says the cuts were an intentional solution to reduce state spending, but now the state is looking into claims that the levels may compromise security.
Sullivan said, "In this upcoming budget the governor has been working with corrections institutions, Department of Health and the Veterans Home to increase staffing levels. It's a good thing, I certainly support that but the question is how are we going to pay for it. Where is the money going to come from."
We also spoke to the Illinois Department of Corrections and Department of Human Services about the claims that staffing levels are too low. Derek Schnapp is a spokesperson with IDOC. He told KHQA safety and security are his department's main priority.
Schnapp said, "We monitor our staffing levels on a daily basis at every facility. Our director, our wardens and our support staff go through our staffing levels every day. We do not compromise safety and security when it comes to staffing our prisons."
We also talked with Tom Green, the spokesman for the Illinois Department of Human Services. He says the Department of Human Services is always concerned about staffing in order to keep employees safe. He says the Rushville Detention Center needs fewer staff because of the safe new pod design of the facility...which allows a guard to watch several areas at once. He also notes the new facility was built to be a prison and has all the latest security technology available. Green adds female employees are not allowed to be alone with residents.
