Photo by Deb Gau Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen, county Human Resources Director Carolyn McDonald, and Jail Administrator Brad Marks took a request for additional correctional officers to the Lyon County Board on Tuesday.

MARSHALL — Running a jail is a 24-hour-a-day job, and one that can demand a lot from correctional officers. If there’s a lot of staff turnover, it doesn’t make things any easier, Lyon County law enforcement officials said.

On Tuesday, Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen and jail administrator Brad Marks went before county commissioners and asked them to consider hiring more jail staff. While the jail’s staffing will be at levels recommended by the Minnesota Department of Corrections as of this week, county officials said the jail has been dealing with a high staff turnover rate for years. It causes job vacancies, and leaves jail staff members working overtime, Wallen and Marks said.

On a 4-1 vote, commissioners approved hiring one additional jail staff member, but some said they weren’t sure it would solve the problem.

Commissioner Gary Crowley asked if hiring additional jail staff could help with retaining employees.

“I don’t know how much of an impact this would have on retention,” Marks said. Individuals who apply to be correctional officers frequently ask about opportunities for advancement, he said.

Wallen said the jail requires three staff members at all times — two correctional officers and one sergeant. However, he said the jail staff also sees a lot of turnover and job vacancies, as correctional officers advance to become sergeants or take other positions as law enforcement officers.

Marks said 70% of the jail’s current line staff were hired within the past year.

In addition, the jail has more inmates with mental illness or drug issues that require time-consuming attention. Compared to 10 years ago, Marks said, “We have a lot more complex, a lot more diverse inmate population.”

Wallen said that puts stress on current officers and sergeants, and makes it harder to do things like offer additional training, or beneficial programs for inmates. Those programs “could be anything that occupies their time, and provides them a benefit,” whether it is Narcotics Anonymous or a GED program, Wallen said. The Department of Corrections feels the Lyon County jail needs to offer more programs, but staff don’t have a lot of time to do so, he said.

Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg said the jail had $67,000 in overtime pay in 2018. As of September 2019, the jail had about $52,000 in overtime, out of a budgeted $55,000.

“We were looking for ways to remedy some of these problems,” Wallen said. Having more staff at the jail could help reduce overtime hours and help free sergeants up to do more supervisory work, he said.

“I have a real problem with the Department of Corrections telling us how to run our facility,” especially without more funding support to do it, said Commissioner Steve Ritter.

“I would support one (officer), and see where we go from there,” he said.

Commissioner Charlie Sanow also said he didn’t know if hiring one more correctional officer would help if turnover rates stayed high. By the time the new officer is trained in, he said, they could end up filling another vacancy.

Sanow cast the vote against the advertising for an additional officer for the jail.