Wardens at Ohio prisons receive raises to cost state $250K

Wardens at Ohio prisons receive raises to cost state $250K

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio Prisons Director Gary Mohr says most Ohio wardens received raises this year as they take on more responsibility under a reorganization plan.

Pay levels varied previously, but most wardens now make $42.40 an hour, or about $88,000 a year. The Columbus Dispatch reports in its Sunday editions that the increase will cost nearly $250,000 annually.

Mohr says leadership at individual institutions will be a key to success as prisons are reorganized into three tiers to help decrease violence and recidivism.

The raises were criticized by the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, which represents about 9,000 prisons staff, mostly corrections officers.

The union’s operations director calls it “a slap in the face” that prison leaders make more while hundreds of corrections workers who directly supervise inmates have been laid off or face cuts this year.