Corrections Department curbing employee housing subsidies

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Posted 7:11AM on Tuesday, April 2, 2002

ATLANTA - The Department of Corrections plans to curb the practice of subsidizing housing for employees, a 70-year-old practice originally intended to attract people to work for the prison system. Almost 330 state employees get subsidized housing, but only 38 are wardens. Twenty-three others are not even in the prison system. None of the tenants pays more than $100 a month in rent and no more than $95 a month in utilities. The DOC plans to increase the charges for the first time in 20 years starting July 1. Depending on the house, tenants would face increases of $82 to $1,063 a month in rent and utilities. The higher rents would put almost $75,000 a month into the agency's bank account. Taxpayers will continue paying the housing expenses for the 38 wardens in the state prison system. Corrections officials say the housing subsidies are incentive for employees to live close enough to respond quickly to emergencies, and also to offset low pay. ``The reason they built these houses was they wanted to entice people to come to work,'' Corrections Commissioner Jim Wetherington said. Wetherington said the impact of the housing cost on the willingness of people to work for corrections no longer is as important. ``I have compassion for them,'' Wetherington said. ``But it's something I think is fair. It's going to be tough on some of them, but there are lots of Department of Corrections employees who don't have the benefit of housing.'' DOC spokesman Scott Stallings said the starting salary for secretaries is about $18,000 and for correctional officers about $23,000. But, Stallings said, it usually takes several years for an employee to get a state-subsidized house, and by that time they may be making about $30,000 a year. The list of tenants is dominated by correctional officers but includes secretaries, clerks, a chaplain and a carpenter. The 23 who don't work for the agency include employees of the Georgia State Patrol, the Parole Board and the Medical College of Georgia. If they are approved, a secretary at the northeast Georgia prison at Alto will see her monthly rent and utility expenses go from $160 to $851.51 A radiology technician from the Medical College of Georgia, living in a four-bedroom, three-bath house at the Georgia State Prison at Reidsville, will see her monthly charges for rent and utilities increase from $195 to $942.07. Those renting just a room will continue to have utilities free, but tenants at state-owned houses will face increases in utility charges. The rate increases must be approved by the Corrections Board at its monthly meeting Thursday or its meeting in May.