CHAMBERSBURG – Operating with around 50% of the staff it needs, three correctional officers have been injured in the last month as talks between Franklin County and the union representing officers have stagnated. This has led to both safety concerns and questions about how county leaders determine spending priorities, at least in the eyes of union leaders.
A system under strain
For the correctional officers at the Franklin County jail, overtime is mandatory, and there is no limit to the amount of 16-hour shifts an officer must work, according to the officers themselves. The county has relied on sheriff’s deputies, parole and police officers to fill gaps. The jail has even pulled administrative staff from their duties to cover unfilled correctional officer roles.
Inmates have been locked down and had visitations cancelled due to the shortage, and as correctional officers have to deliver the message, they get the blame, union officials said. Within the last month, one officer was kicked in the head, one was knocked to the floor, another had urine thrown on him and had to stay off work for several days for medical testing.
The county downplayed the incident earlier this week, with Warden Heather Franzioni stating, “While incidents involving inmate noncompliance or physical instability are concerning, they are, unfortunately, not uncommon in a correctional setting. Our staff members are trained to respond professionally and appropriately to maintain care, custody and control, while prioritizing the safety of both staff and inmates.”
According to the union, however, the low rate of incoming officers has led to longer lag time before officers receive full training. When correctional officer and AFSCME Local 589 president Thomas Howell was hired in 2019, he shadowed officers for four weeks before he spent three weeks at the academy learning critical skills like defensive tactics.
Now, Howell said, new officers spend three weeks shadowing and then perform the duties of an officer until the next academy is held, which could be several months.
For Howell, the concern is the safety of his officers and incarcerated people alike. “The danger is being underplayed. It is not safe; the only way to get it safe is to get staffing up. They have to start training someone to get them prepared. Have to get incentives to get people to stay. Warehouse wages get warehouse people.”
The county’s case: We’re doing the best we can
The county has doubled down on recruiting, conducting more than 500 job interviews for correctional officers since January 2022 and hiring nearly 140 applicants. The jail revamped the hiring process in January of 2025, bringing applicants to the jail to complete assessments and tour the facility.
Those efforts reflect a clear intention to fully staff the jail, but the numbers keep falling. In 2022, the number of officers hovered in the 80s, peaking at 90 in August. In 2023, the jail averaged 73.7 officers. In 2024, it dropped to 69.7, and in December of that year, contract negotiations commenced. In 2025 the average was just 54.2 officers on staff with zero progress toward a new contract.
County officials blame the union for the stalemate, claiming that the union pay requests are beyond their means and stating the union refused to vote on their proposed Pitman schedule. A Pitman schedule requires staff to work in a 12-hour, four-team rotation with two days of work, two days off, then working three days and then off two days again. The union refutes the county’s claim, saying another vote on the Pitman schedule was redundant, as membership had twice voted it down prior to mediation.
“We’ve listened, we’ve considered, we’ve given counteroffers,” county officials noted. “We are willing to work with AFSCME to find a responsible, long-term solution, but to do so requires compromise on both sides. Until AFSCME is ready to come to the table to negotiate, we must do what we can to take care of our staff in the most reasonable and feasible ways possible.”
It appears that outsourcing jobs is under consideration. The union submitted an open records request to the county and learned they had made inquiries to a company called Coast2Coast Corrections, which supplies contract correctional officers. Its website states it offers “high-paying travel assignments across the U.S.” complete with housing stipends.
According to Tennessee Department of State business records, the company was founded in August of 2025 and is headquartered in a 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom home with an inground pool in rural Tennessee.
Inside the jail – officer experience
Without a limit on 16-hour shifts, Howell said that some officers have slept at the jail, either on a cot in the gym or a cell in a unit closed due to the staffing shortage. Crews have been cut to the bone.
“When we don’t have enough officers on the floor, the risk level increases immediately. A single officer might be responsible for supervising dozens of inmates, handling conflicts, monitoring behavior and responding to emergencies — often simultaneously and with little to no support. This is not just inefficient. It’s dangerous,” said Officer Brock Hohman.
Known as “floats,” relief officers circulate to provide for lunch breaks, respond to emergencies and provide backup. There used to be four floats on a shift; now there are two. Howell, who works in Intake, used to have a crew of three. Now he is alone.
The officers work hard to support one another and use humor to manage the stress, but when Howell looks into the eyes of his fellow officers, he sees the strain they are under. One lieutenant quit last year because, as Howell put it, he did not feel comfortable sending correctional officers into dangerous situations.
Impacts on the incarcerated at an understaffed facility
The staff shortage has caused inmates to be locked-down for 48 hours straight, only allowed out of their cells for 20-minute meals. Visitations have been cancelled too. “People’s families travel for hours to go visit, and sometimes can’t get in because there’s not enough staff,” Howell said.
Inmates blame officers for the restrictions, which damages the relationships between those incarcerated and those charged with creating a safe and orderly environment for their rehabilitation. According to Howell, they have had to replace more than eight windows in the last three months as frustrated inmates break them using anything they can: cleaning supplies, chairs, even their bodies, with one inmate banging his head against a window until it broke.
The union’s case: This hurts everyone
The union asserts that the lack of adequate staff creates a dangerous work environment, and mandatory overtime means correctional officers are unable to maintain a life outside of work. In order to improve retention, the union has asked that each new officer receive academy training no more than two months after their start date, staff hired since the beginning of 2025 receive retention bonuses to encourage them to stay, and hourly wages increase by $2 per hour in both 2026 and 2027. The current starting wage for correctional officers is $22.37 per hour.
With what he calls “warehouse pay,” Howell feels it’s hard to recruit experienced officers. He said he’s working with some “really, really good like, 18-, 19-year-olds. They can’t get a gun permit, but they’re working as a correctional officer.” He said placing someone so young on the floor supervising 50 incarcerated people for 12 to 16 hours is asking a lot from someone just starting a career.
AFSCME performed an analysis of audited county financials for 2021, 2022 and 2023 finding the county’s reserves increased from $24.7 million to $35.4 million. During that period, the county increased spending on economic development by $4.6 million, a 208% increase, and administrative costs increased by $2.1 million, or 18.9%. During the same period, the county increased spending on corrections by $164,712, around 0.8%.
Paying other counties to house inmates
As of this month, Franklin County is paying to house 32 inmates at facilities outside of the county. Holding contracts with six other facilities in the state, the county pays between $60 and $100 per inmate per day to house adults, $150 per day for youthful offenders. If all of those inmates are adults, that costs Franklin County taxpayers between $1,920 and $3,200 every day.
The county has argued that transferring inmates to other facilities is standard, but the most recent data from the state indicates the current number is a 400% increase from 2023, when Franklin County housed just eight inmates elsewhere.
Many work-release eligible inmates hold jobs at J&J Pallets and Recycling, less than eight miles from the Franklin County Jail. But without enough staff, that unit was closed, and the inmates were transferred to the Cumberland County prison in Carlisle, causing probation officers to drive them to their jobs, nearly 40 miles each way.
What comes next
Negotiations are currently at a stalemate, but the county anticipates restarting talks during the first quarter of the year. The next Prison Board Meeting will be held Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 8:30 a.m. at the Franklin County Administration Building, 272 N. Second St., Chambersburg. That meeting is open to the public.
County commissioners have declined to be interviewed for this story.
