EVERETT – More than 300 people paraded through Everett Station on Monday with hopes of landing a job as new corrections officers. Only a handful of them will make it.
The county has started to hire staff to work in the $86.5 million jail expansion, which is scheduled to be finished by December and start housing prisoners by spring.
This is just the first batch of people who seek to join the Snohomish County Department of Corrections, getting a job that pays more than $37,000 a year to start.
The occasion was a “fast-track” application during a hiring fair conducted by jail staff. Applicants must meet a variety of minimum requirements, including passing a written test and then making it through a job interview.
Those who succeed get a conditional offer from the county, but still must take a lie detector test and then undergo physical and psychological tests. Background and reference checks come next, said Jim Harms, community corrections commander.
“We’re not necessarily looking for a corrections background, but someone who is trainable,” Harms said.
The handful who pass muster will go to a four-week corrections course at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Academy in Burien, and then undergo more training on how to get along with people, Harms said.
Going into the process, Harms figured that he might get 25 qualified corrections officers from the first 500 folks who apply. Thanks to the advertising and the work done by Worksource, the state agency that helps people find jobs, fewer than expected were dropping out early in the process, Harms said.
“I’m extremely encouraged,” he said. Some not hired now may still be on the waiting list in December when more corrections staff will be hired, he said.
The jail expansion will increase the number of jail beds to 1,040 compared with the 477 in the current lockup. Right now, it’s common to have between 100 and 150 prisoners sleeping on the floor, Harms said.
With excess room, the county plans to lease space out to other jurisdictions, helping to defray the cost of operating the jail until the county needs the space.
The county currently has 156 corrections officers. Harms hopes to hire 55 more: 25 now, 13 in December and 17 more in March, when the county takes over the new building.
That adds up to 55 corrections officers. The department will have to hire an additional 25 or 30 support staffers including people who open and close electronic doors from a control room and jail nurses.
For the 200 candidates who made it through inspection Monday, appointments started today for lie detector tests designed to determine whether people tell the truth or have something undesirable in their background.
No matter what’s there, “we tell them it’s better to tell the truth,” Harms said.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
