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Commissioners press Lackawanna County prison on overtime, staffing and medical coverage
Summary
At the June 17, 2026 Lackawanna County Prison Board meeting, commissioners pressed prison leadership on high overtime costs, staff absences and three restraint incidents reported in May; the Warden said vacancies and unpredictable medical runs drive overtime and pledged to produce cost analyses on hiring versus overtime savings.
Commissioners at the Lackawanna County Prison Board meeting on June 17, 2026 pressed Warden Mr. Ramirez and prison leadership about sustained overtime costs and multiple staffing gaps.
Board members cited recent payroll comparisons and budget figures, noting that overtime reached nearly $3 million in 2024, fell to about $1.5 million in 2025 and that the board had budgeted $2 million for overtime in the current year. One commissioner flagged pay-period spikes and said the period-by-period math already shows large increases compared with prior years.
"We have 81 with intermittent FMLA," a board member said, describing how intermittent FMLA can reduce available hours and contribute to overtime. The Warden explained that intermittent FMLA represents episodic absences rather than continuous leave and that the facility currently has 170 officers on shift, four on workers' comp, one on continuous FMLA, four on administrative leave and three full-time vacancies, yielding roughly 11 officer-equivalents unavailable for regular staffing.
Mr. Ramirez said housing-unit closures and other operational adjustments have reduced staffing needs in some areas, but unpredictable medical runs and simultaneous transports still require overtime. "If I had four runs out simultaneously, that's eight officers that we can't [cover]... and that all goes down as overtime," he said, and offered to prepare a chart comparing the costs of hiring additional officers with projected overtime savings to inform the board's decision.
Commissioners and staff discussed limits on local authority to change FMLA usage; a member referenced a 2024 memo by former county labor counsel Matt Klamity that concluded few local remedies exist under current law. The board also discussed whether filling a vacant on-site medical position could curb costly emergency-room transports; members noted the contractor Armor has reduced unnecessary transports compared with the previous vendor, but agreed that some ER admissions will be unavoidable for true emergencies.
The Warden reported three extraordinary restraint-chair incidents in May (a detainee banging his head, a combative individual brought by the sheriff who spat at an officer, and a female who flooded her cell and resisted a move) and said one May pre-investigation into an inmate sexual-harassment allegation was deemed unfounded. Commissioners said those incidents, combined with staffing pressures, underscore the need for continued attention to hiring and scheduling.
Next steps: the Warden will prepare the requested cost/benefit charts on hiring versus overtime and staffing configurations for commissioners to review at a future meeting. The board took no formal personnel actions at the June 17 meeting.
