Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Recruitment challenges and suggestions for corrections officers
5:02:16
ยท
157 sec
Council Member Diana Ayala and Benny Boscio Jr. discuss the starting salary for corrections officers and explore suggestions for improving recruitment efforts.
- Starting salary for corrections officers is close to $60,000 as of March 1st
- Boscio suggests recruiting from military bases and introducing the career path to students in junior high school
- He highlights the challenges of the job, including long hours and difficult working conditions
- Boscio emphasizes the need for investment in current staff while waiting for borough-based jails to be completed
Diana Ayala
5:02:16
What is the average salary starting?
Benny Boscio Jr.
5:02:18
Oh, I think we're about 59 close to 60,000.
5:02:22
Start that just started I think March first of this year.
Diana Ayala
5:02:24
Okay.
5:02:25
And you you mentioned that the city continues to I guess try to attract the officers from like the same pool.
5:02:36
You mentioned you may be offering some incentives.
5:02:39
Is there any other recommendation that you would?
Benny Boscio Jr.
5:02:43
I mean I think we need to go to military bases to try and get veterans to come on the job.
5:02:49
You know I think starting younger, maybe in junior high school and just kind of like talk to the students and let them know that there's a career path there.
5:02:57
You know, we're in dire needs right now and the problem is that they made the job so bad for us, right, because us and the people in custody are suffering behind Rikers and as you know 85% of my members are black and brown and it begs the question as to why we're being treated that way.
5:03:14
You know what I mean?
5:03:16
And I think that we stopped promoting the job to our friends and family because things got so bad for us.
5:03:23
We're working one hundred and fifty hours a month of overtime.
5:03:26
I have single parents on this job and they're spending so much time at work that the streets are raising our children and that becomes another vicious cycle in itself.
5:03:37
And 65% of my members come from the city Of New York, the same neighborhoods that the incarcerated individuals do.
Diana Ayala
5:03:43
Yeah.
5:03:44
No, that's that's problematic.
5:03:46
And again, I will, you know, I appreciate your testimony here today and you know I know what it's like to be on both sides.
5:03:55
I've had family members that have worked in corrections and I have had you know family members and friends that have been at you know in Rikers as inmates and it's not good either which way.
5:04:04
And we need to ensure that there's proper staffing ratios so that everyone feels safe and that the conditions there while we're there because even if you were in agreement with the borough based jails, they're not gonna happen for a number of years and we've already been having this discussion for quite some time.
5:04:24
So there should be temporary accommodations that are made to ensure that there's proper heating and just the basic essentials for individuals that are spending most of their day doing know two tours and not having to spend you know time at the facility.
5:04:40
So I really do appreciate that and I hope that you feel that you know we will work hard.
5:04:47
We're trying to balance and ensure that there's equity while there's also fairness in the system.
Benny Boscio Jr.
5:04:53
Yeah we appreciate that.