‘There’s a lot of burnout’: Seward County Jail struggling to keep staff amid shortage

SEWARD, Neb. (KLKN) – Law enforcement staffing shortages have become a problem across Nebraska, and the Seward County Justice Center said it’s been struggling more than usual lately.

Lt. Aliscia Stutzman said in the nearly six years since the center opened, it’s never been fully staffed. That includes the four full-time officer positions.

She said a number of reasons have contributed to the shortage, including the pay, COVID-19 and competition with other counties.

“We have one person that runs the floor, and you’re doing everything from intake to booking to release to housing to medical to serving meals — all of it,” she said. “And when you only have one person, it’s a lot.”

Stutzman said even with programs meant to lower jail populations, it can be tough for each county to handle.

“It gets hard; I mean, there’s burnout,” she said. “There’s a lot of burnout with staff, and they’re not compensated for the work that they do. We try to advocate and say, ‘We’re short staffed, these are the problems.’ But if people aren’t willing to listen, nothing’s going to change.”

She said if the facility gets below bare minimum staff, it would have to send inmates to other county jails, which costs taxpayers money.

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Correctional officer Isaac Duncan said keeping inmates within their own community makes it easier for families to visit, fosters better rehabilitation, and speeds up the legal process.

“These folks, they work with people they live right next to,” he said. “And with that community touch, it leads to less recidivism, more rehabilitation. But if you don’t have staff, you can’t afford to run programming because you’re just trying to get these guys fed.”

Duncan said the more staff there are, the safer it is for inmates.

“‘When you have two staff restraining someone, you can use a lot less force than when you have one person,” he said.

He added that it’s also safer for officers when they aren’t as outnumbered by inmates.

“Say we’d gotten somebody in or one of our inmates decided they wanted to take off on me and start fighting,” he said. “I’d either have to win that fight or take an ass-kicking long enough for a deputy to get 15 minutes across the county to back me up.”

Stutzman said to recruit more staff, the justice center has been visiting career fairs and getting the word out.

The starting pay for a correctional officer there is around $23 per hour. Right now, the center is also offering a hiring bonus of up to $5,000.