Buffalo, NY (WBEN) A new proposal from Governor Hochul would allow those 18 to 20 years of age become correctional officers in a bid to shore up staffing. Reaction varies from monitoring to supporting it with a combination of other factors.
This would not be unprecedented, says State Senator Patrick Gallivan. "While it's not prevalent, there are other states that do allow correction officers to be hired beginning at age 18, and there's some counties in New York that start hiring correction officers at age 18," notes Gallivan, himself a former Erie County Sheriff. He says there's a process people have to go through. "They still have to take a competitive exam, they have to have the requisite education, they have to pass a background check and interviews. I'm not necessarily opposed to it. We send 18 year olds to war to defend the United States, and if we can do that, I don't see any reason why we can't hire an 18 year old to be a correction officer if they're sufficiently mature and if they're properly trained."
Gallivan says if the goal is to bolster staffing, the proposal with conditions such as 18-20 year olds not being armed or being supervised may not be the solution. "If they're going to require a higher level of supervision, we're not necessarily solving the problem," explains Gallivan. He also says Hochul should reconsider hiring the 2,000 officers fired for striking in February. "You've got 2,000 people sitting out there that are already qualified. I see no reason why the governor cannot call them back to work and offer them their jobs back as a means of helping to solve the staffing shortages," says Gallivan.
NYSCOPBA's James Miller says he'll monitor what happens with the proposal. "Our hope is if they do begin to hire 18 year olds, which certainly will help the staffing crisis, is that they put an emphasis on the background investigations and the psychological evaluation of each individual they consider hiring to make sure they're at a maturity level they be able to handle any situation," says Miller.
Miler says there need to be checkpoints put into this to make sure that 18 or 19 year olds that they're hiring can handle the job.
