According to a recent report by the Dayton Daily News, the Ohio state prison system was short more than 500 corrections officers at the end of last year. The Daily News conducted its investigation because Dayton Correctional Institution has the highest rate of openings, at 18.8%.

Lebanon Correctional Institution has a vacancy rate of 11.5% and Warren Correctional Institution has a vacancy rate of 2.4%, the newspaper found.

Those numbers are an improvement over the worst period in 2022, but still a significant problem for the system. Of course, state officials were eager to put a positive spin on the data.

“Through deliberate and proactive strategies to address the specific needs of the men and women who work for the agency, Ohio has achieved a vacancy rate among the lowest in the nation, at 7.4%,” Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Communications Chief JoEllen Smith told the Daily News. “These strategies include allowing personal cellphones into facilities so staff can remain connected to their loved ones, advertising campaigns highlighting the important work being done by staff, streamlining hiring processes, allowing prisons to make same-day job offers, and working with the union to achieve the largest correction officer compensation increase in the agency’s history.”

Staffing shortages can mean a dangerous work environment for corrections officers and staff, and can also be dangerous for inmates. But, though lawmakers have tried to come up with reforms that would address the shortages, the nature of the job itself is a challenge when it comes to hiring.

Speaking to the newspaper about the Dayton Correctional Institution, state Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., said “You’re dealing with inmates on death row with nothing to lose. It’s a very tough job.”

Surely though, there are some who are up to the challenge, as long as they feel supported, as safe as possible, and valued by their employer.

State Rep. Mark Johnson, R-Chillicothe, called Ohio’s prisons “the most dangerous places of employment, I believe, in the United States,” according to the Daily News. It’s a chicken-and-egg situation in which one of the reasons they are so dangerous is that they are short staffed.

Lawmakers must not let up on reform bills that could make a difference. If we are asking people to fill jobs that ask as much of these, job applicants must at least know that state government has their back.