MO prison officers want pay raise

Jan 17, 2020 @ 10:56am

Officers working for the Missouri Department of Corrections want a pay raise.

Steven Perkins is a former corrections officer.

He says the Show-Me-State is lagging far behind the rest of the nation.

Perkins says retention rate is also slipping for Missouri corrections officers.

And conversations Perkins has had with other prison officers always come back to the extreme hazards of the job.

An advocacy group led by retired deputy warden Bill Schmutz from Jefferson City documented approximately 140 incidents of extreme inmate violence in a letter sent to state senators and representatives.

The last pay raise for corrections officers came during Roy Blunt’s term as governor.

To hear the full interview with Steven Perkins, click play below.