Corrections officers in Bennettsville have been feeling the impact of the partial Government shutdown.
Staff members say they’ve been working several hours a day with no pay, “You know it’s sad that you get off work, and then go into work. You’re in the law enforcement field and not getting paid to do your job,” said Clellan Tyson, Senior officer specialist at Federal Correctional Institution in Bennettsville.
After 3 weeks with no decision on when the Federal Government will reopen, corrections officers at the FCI have yet to see a paycheck.
“Some people will just go home and say hey I’m not coming to work, but no we take a sacrifice. When we took this oath, we said we were going to do our job to the fullest and that’s what we’re doing,” said Tyson.
Tyson said expenses are starting to get hard to manage especially for some of his co-workers, “A lot of our staff travel about two and half hours away, so at some point in time it’s going to be a costly factor for this that can’t get to work and therefore it’s going to cause an impact for the prison as well,” said Tyson.
Not only is the government shutdown affecting staff members, but also prisoners.
“I mean some inmates program could be canceled. The bureau prison now has something called re-entry and we’re tying to make sure that the inmates are rehabilitated once they get out, so they can learn more job skills,” said Tyson.
Tyson does not blame anyone, but wants Congress, Senate, and The President to find a solution. In the meantime, corrections officers have little to no choice but to keep working.
“We have people who are working 16 hours a day at some point because we’re short staffed. So they’re actually working double shift, with no pay,” said Tyson.
If the government were to reopen this week, their next paycheck will hopefully come in by January 25.