Carbon County’s prison overtime cost is on track to hit $310,000 by the end of the year, officials report.

On Thursday, the county commissioners approved an $85,000 budget transfer from the general fund to the prison overtime budget to help cover costs of the higher than anticipated overtime hours. The prison overtime budget currently has only $34,037 left out of the $225,000 budgeted at the beginning of the year.Carbon County also spent $39,611 in overtime at the prison in August alone.“Last year, we took a look at overtime and part-time,” Commissioner William O’Gurek said. “We said, let’s see what happens, and we’re at that point.”The commissioners said that some of the overtime costs that have been incurred are out of the county’s control, including inmate hospitalizations, which require 24-hour-a-day coverage by corrections officers; as well as medical leave, vacations, sick time, holidays and more.Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that there are currently two inmates in medical facilities and earlier this year, there was one who required three months of hospitalization.“Those are the things that are really killing us,” he said.The county budgets $2.6 million for prison personnel and overtime has been on the rise over the past three years.In 2013 and 2014, Carbon spent approximately $160,000 in overtime, while in 2015, the overtime cost jumped to $276,000.Sheriff Anthony Harvilla, who sits as president of the prison board, reminded officials that the department is unique in that no position can be left unfilled during the day without risking proper operation, adding yet another reason for the increased overtime hours.“It’s not that you can have someone absent and say we’ll get that paperwork done tomorrow,” he said. “These corrections officers are monitoring prisoners, moving prisoners, so when you have someone who calls in, a person has to take that person’s place. You can’t leave that spot open for that day.”Beginning researchEarlier this year, Warden Timothy Fritz sent out inquiries to other counties to see how they handle overtime and staffing in their prisons.Of the 24 replies O’Gurek said Fritz received, 15 counties operate like Carbon County with both part-time and full-time corrections officers, while nine counties use only full-time corrections officers in their prisons.Out of the nine, Lancaster County asked the state for its input and had an evaluation completed to see what the best way to operate should be. The evaluation showed that an all full-time staff would help cut down on the excessive overtime that the county prison had been accruing.Nothstein said that for last month alone, between overtime and part-time hours, the amount of additional time put in to staff the prison was 2,500.Moving forwardRobert Crampsie, county controller, said that Carbon is taking the first step in that officials realize there is a problem and are working to identify what is driving the overtime hours.“There are a lot of reasons why the overtime is what it is,” he said. “We really have to determine if we have the proper full-time staffing at the prison.“We all know the financial impact of overtime on both the general fund and retirement because it creates a liability with the huge salaries of the corrections officers,” Crampsie said. “Beyond the financial end, there is a safety concern. We have some corrections officers sometimes working double shifts, sometimes going back to back to back. … I think that is a safety concern not only in the facility, but for the individual because at the end of the day they have to drive home.”Crampsie suggested following Lancaster’s lead and asking the state Department of Corrections to complete a staffing analysis to see what is the best route moving forward.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard reminded his colleagues that there are added factors that the county must look at when doing the analysis.On Wednesday, the board said that the equation isn’t simply looking at the overtime costs and the salaries of additional full-time corrections officers.There are also health benefits and retirement benefits that must be adjusted into the equation, as well as the benefits of having more full-time staff versus additional part-timers.“It’s a mathematical challenge,” O’Gurek said.For example, the county is spending $310,000 in overtime and $279,480 annually in part-time corrections officers, O’Gurek said, so adding those two figures together is costing Carbon nearly $600,000 in costs.“How many full-time jobs can you get out of over a half-million dollars,” he said, “and does it meet your needs and deliver what you need? That will be part of the equation.”“A half-million dollars is a lot of money,” Gerhard said. “But we’re looking at a facility that costs us over $4 million a year to run and the numbers continue to escalate, so they are staggering numbers and something we have to address.”