How to Reduce Overtime Costs in Correctional Facilities

Overtime costs in corrections are not a budget line item anymore. They are a budget crisis.

The Bureau of Prisons spent $436.9 million on overtime in fiscal year 2024, according to the Congressional Research Service. Connecticut's Department of Correction logged 1.9 million overtime hours for $92.7 million in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to testimony before the state's Appropriations Committee. In New York, 332 Department of Corrections and Community Supervision employees collected six-figure overtime pay in 2024, nearly double the prior year's 173, according to payroll data published by the Empire Center for Public Policy. 

These are not isolated cases. They are the operational reality for understaffed correctional facilities across the country.

Reducing corrections overtime costs requires more than a policy change. It requires fixing the staffing structure that makes chronic overtime unavoidable in the first place.

Why Corrections Overtime Keeps Growing

The relationship between understaffing and overtime is direct. When a facility cannot fill authorized positions, existing staff absorb the gap through mandatory overtime. The more understaffed a facility becomes, the more overtime it generates. And the more overtime it generates, the harder it becomes to retain the staff it already has.

The Congressional Research Service's January 2026 report on federal prison staffing documents this cycle clearly. BOP's overtime costs increased from $135 million in FY2016 to $436.9 million in FY2024, a 224% increase over eight years. In FY2024, BOP operated at a 24% vacancy rate, with 15,576 correctional officers on board against 20,446 authorized positions. Correctional officer positions accounted for 69% of all BOP overtime costs in FY2019, according to the DOJ Office of Inspector General.

When overtime runs this high, it stops being a coverage tool and starts being a structural dependency. Facilities that depend on overtime to fill shifts face a compound problem: fatigue-related safety risks, accelerating burnout, and a workforce that eventually leaves for jobs that don't require 16-hour shifts three times a week.

Connecticut's experience illustrates what that looks like at the state level. Despite legislative efforts to reduce overtime in 2019, which temporarily worked, the state's Department of Correction saw overtime increase 8% in the most recent fiscal year, reaching $92.7 million. Over the past 10 fiscal years, the department averaged 1.75 million overtime hours annually at an average cost of $77.6 million, according to testimony by Commissioner Angel Quiros before the state Appropriations Committee. The full department payroll of $567.7 million makes it the highest-payroll executive branch agency in Connecticut.

The Real Cost of Corrections Overtime

The budget line understates the actual cost. Overtime is expensive in dollars, but the downstream consequences are more expensive.

Fatigue and safety risk

The Congressional Research Service cites GAO findings that working overtime causes sleep deprivation, making officers more irritable and reducing their observational skills, precisely the capabilities most critical in a prison environment. Corrections workers already experience the highest rate of nonfatal workplace violence of any occupation studied by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at 149 instances per 1,000 workers from 2015 to 2019. Fatigued officers in high-violence environments are a safety liability.

Burnout and turnover

Mandatory overtime accelerates the burnout cycle. The Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services found that each correctional officer's separation costs an average of $64,635 in overtime coverage and onboarding expenses, with annual turnover costs exceeding $11 million for Alabama alone. Every officer who burns out and leaves creates the vacancy that generates the next round of overtime.

Augmentation

When overtime alone cannot cover shifts, facilities turn to augmentation, assigning non-correctional staff to custody roles. BOP's augmentation hours reached 718,174 in FY2025, the highest level in the 10 years tracked by the Congressional Research Service, exceeding even the pandemic peak of 630,041 hours in FY2020. The DOJ Office of Inspector General found that augmentation reduced morale and staff attentiveness, decreasing overall facility safety.

Competing for staff from a position of weakness

High overtime and poor working conditions make it harder to recruit. ICE has actively recruited corrections officers by offering $50,000 hiring bonuses and higher base pay, according to the Congressional Research Service. The median correctional officer salary of $57,970 already trails police and detective salaries by $19,300, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Facilities that also require mandatory 16-hour shifts are not competing effectively for the same candidate pool.

How Facilities Actually Reduce Corrections Overtime Costs

There is no single fix. Overtime is a symptom of structural understaffing, and the solutions address that root cause directly.

Fill authorized positions faster

Every unfilled legal position generates overtime. The most direct way to reduce overtime costs is to close the gap between on-board staff and authorized positions. This means shortening time-to-fill, improving candidate pipelines, and removing friction from the hiring process.

Facilities that partner with a corrections-specific staffing agency consistently reduce time-to-fill compared to those relying on general job boards and internal HR teams managing complex government hiring processes alone. The 17-week average time-to-fill documented by the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services represents 17 weeks of overtime coverage per vacancy. Cutting that in half has a direct budget impact.

Improve retention to stop the replacement cycle

Filling positions is only half of the equation. Keeping officers once hired is the other half. The Alabama Commission found that compensation changes reduced voluntary turnover by 28%, retaining an estimated 140 officers who would otherwise have left. Retained officers do not need to be replaced, and positions that do not need to be filled do not generate overtime.

Retention strategies that have shown results include competitive pay relative to local law enforcement, realistic job previews that reduce early attrition, structured onboarding that prepares officers for the job's demands, and clear career advancement pathways. The Congressional Research Service notes that 16 of 23 agencies surveyed by the American Correctional Association identified work-life balance issues as one of the top three reasons employees left.

Reduce mandatory overtime through scheduling restructuring

Some facilities have reduced overtime costs without changing headcount by restructuring shift schedules to distribute coverage more efficiently. Alternative scheduling arrangements, such as four 10-hour shifts rather than five 8-hour shifts, can reduce the number of shift changes that require overtime coverage. The Congressional Research Service highlights this as an area Congress has considered directing BOP to study formally.

Partner with an RPO provider to build a sustainable pipeline

Reactive hiring creates overtime dependency. Facilities that build a consistent candidate pipeline through Recruitment Process Outsourcing are less likely to face the sudden vacancy spikes that drive mandatory overtime. An RPO partner manages sourcing, screening, and compliance documentation on an ongoing basis, so that when positions open, qualified candidates are already in the pipeline rather than months away.

Understanding how correctional staffing solutions work is the foundation for building a staffing model that does not depend on overtime to function.

What Whalls Group Does Differently

Whalls Group builds custom recruitment strategies for correctional facilities specifically to address the staffing gaps that drive overtime dependency. Every engagement starts with an analysis of your current vacancy rate, time-to-fill data, and overtime expenditure, and builds a recruitment plan designed to close those gaps systematically.

GSA approval means government agencies can contract without a lengthy procurement process. Nationwide reach means rural county jails and large state Departments of Corrections both have access to the same corrections-specific RPO methodology.

The goal is not to fill today's open shifts. It is to build a staffing system that makes chronic overtime unnecessary.

Take the Next Step

Overtime costs are a symptom. Understaffing is the cause. Addressing one without the other does not solve the problem.

If your overtime budget is climbing and your vacancy rate is not improving, the next step is a direct conversation about your facility's specific situation.

Schedule a free staffing consultation with Whalls Group →

Frequently Asked Questions About Reducing Corrections Overtime Costs

What is driving the increase in correctional overtime costs?

The primary driver is chronic understaffing. When authorized positions go unfilled, existing staff cover vacant shifts through mandatory overtime. The Congressional Research Service documents that BOP overtime costs rose from $135 million in FY2016 to $436.9 million in FY2024, a 224% increase directly tied to a vacancy rate that reached 24% in FY2024.

How much do corrections over time actually cost per facility?

Costs vary by facility size and vacancy rate. At the state level, Connecticut's Department of Correction averaged $77.6 million in annual overtime costs over 10 years, reaching $92.7 million in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to the state's Appropriations Committee hearing. At the federal level, BOP's correctional officer positions alone accounted for 69% of all agency overtime costs in FY2019, per the DOJ Office of Inspector General.

Does paying more solve the overtime problem?

Pay is one factor, but not the only one. The Congressional Research Service notes that the BOP's pay freeze since 1990 has contributed to a $19,300 gap between median correctional officer salaries and police salaries. However, the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services found that compensation changes alone did not improve hiring rates during the review period, suggesting that pay increases must be paired with process improvements and faster hiring timelines to have a meaningful impact on staffing levels and overtime reduction.

What is augmentation, and why does it matter for overtime costs?

Augmentation is when non-correctional staff are assigned to custody roles to cover shift shortages. BOP's augmentation hours reached 718,174 in FY2025, the highest in the 10 years tracked by the Congressional Research Service, exceeding pandemic-era peaks. The DOJ Office of Inspector General found that augmentation reduced morale and staff attentiveness, creating safety risks that compound the financial cost of understaffing.

How does a corrections staffing partner help reduce overtime?

A corrections-specific staffing partner reduces overtime by shortening time-to-fill for vacant positions, building a consistent candidate pipeline that prevents vacancy spikes, and improving retention through realistic job previews and structured onboarding. Facilities that reduce their vacancy rate directly reduce their overtime dependency, because fewer unfilled positions mean fewer mandatory overtime shifts.