Florida Prisons Plan To Hire More Than 4,000 People

Florida's prison agency says it is planning to hire more than 4,000 new correctional officers in the next 15 months.

The Department of Corrections announced on Friday that it will need to hire that many people in order to fill vacant positions and deal with expected job turnover. Currently the department has about 1,300 vacant positions.

Florida's prison system has been come under fire the last few years from everything from inmate deaths to poor conditions. Julie Jones took over the department in December 2014 and since then has pushed for more staff and more money to repair prison buildings.

Florida has more than 98,000 prison inmates.

Jones tried unsuccessfully this spring to get additional positions authorized by legislators. She wanted the extra jobs so guards would work an eight hour shift instead of a 12-hour shift.

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