Overtime Gives About 6,000 California Prison Guards 6-Figure Salaries; 1 Earns $253,000 !!

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- About 6,000 California corrections officers earned more than $100,000 in the last fiscal year thanks to overtime work in the strained prison system, and one brought in more than a quarter of a million.

Overtime added $220 million to the $453 million base pay for those prison workers, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. More than 900 of them earned $50,000 or more in overtime alone.

Overtime costs have soared since the officers' current labor contract took effect five years ago, rising 24 percent in the third quarter of this year compared to the same point last year, the newspaper reported.

"This business of overtime is just out of control," said Lew Uhler, president of the Sacramento-based National Tax Limitation Committee. "If you had a comparable situation in the private sector, the management would have been fired long ago."

Chuck Alexander, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said a shortage of officers makes the overtime necessary.

"I can't have a control booth vacant," Alexander said. "We have to fill our positions."

The biggest payout to a corrections officer for the fiscal year that ended in June was $252,570, which went to a lieutenant. That's more than the salaries of the corrections chief, who makes $225,000, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declined what would be a $206,500 paycheck this year.

Editors Note....what are the requirements for this job? A high school diploma and age 21? I hope that the legislators in Sacramento feel the heat on this one....the prison guards are one of the most prolific contributors to politicians campaigns in California.........This kind of salary overinflation SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.