Support Funding for Additional Corrections Officer Academy Classes

We are now a little more than one-third of the way through the Legislative Session and just past the first policy cutoff. This means that many policy bills have died, and we are waiting to see what bills survive the fiscal cutoff next Wednesday. It also means that we are in the period of session during which budget provisos are due to the budget writers in order to be eligible to be included in the budget process. One such proviso that we are seeking is related to additional Corrections Officer Classes (COA) as requested by the Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC).

Pursuant to RCW 43.101.220, WAC 139-10-210, and WAC 193-10-220, corrections officers must go through and successfully complete the required 10-week COA within the first six months of employment unless otherwise extended or waived by CJTC. Every corrections officer must be certified. There are currently four classes annually being offered by the CJTC, which are made up of 36 students per class. This means that there is space for 144 individuals to go through the COA each year. As of January 2024, there are 237 corrections officers on the waitlist to get into the COA, with a wait time of 12-24 months.

For reference, CJTC is funded for 29 Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA) classes offered annually (20 in Burien, 3 in Spokane, 2 in Vancouver, 2 in Pasco, and 2 more opening in FY '25). There is a minimum of 30 officers per class. There are 147 officers on the waitlist for BLEA with a 6 month wait time. The CJTA is in the process of adding six more classes with new funding from the 2023 session, which will bring BLEA classes up to a total of 29 per year.

County jails are facing correction officer recruitment and retention difficulties. Exacerbating this issue is that once hired, corrections officers cannot complete the required COA courses within the mandated period.

So, even if a county can hire a corrections officer, they must wait a minimum of up to 12 months, unless otherwise waived by CJTC, before that person is trained and able to work.

If all jails were fully staffed with correctional officers, there would be approximately 3,000 correction officers statewide. As of January 2024, there are 2,127 certified corrections officers employed in the state.

The CJTC has requested two additional COA classes for FY '24 and four additional COA classes for FY '25 and thereafter. However, the Governor only funded one additional class in FY '24 and two additional classes in FY '25 and thereafter in his proposed budget. Based on the CJTC’s estimates, it needs a total of 13 COA classes to alleviate the waitlist completely and 7 COA classes to simply keep up with the applications it receives, yet it is only funded for 4 COA classes annually. This is woefully insufficient. If the State continues on a path of failing to provide a sufficient number of training classes for corrections officers, the greater the gap in services grows. Fewer corrections officers in jails mean longer hours and more shifts for those who are trained and certified, and greater difficulties in retaining and recruiting individuals to take on these roles.

Therefore, we ask that you reach out to your legislators and ask them to support CJTC’s COA budget request for six additional classes to help address the waitlist crisis.