Mississippi’s average pay for police officers is among the lowest in the country.
The medium salary for police and sheriff’s patrol officers is $30,370,
LawEnforcmentEDU.net reported, citing 2012-13 Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Detectives and criminals investigators earn $45,110, and supervisors receive $47,070.
Indeed reported $30,000 as the average compensation for police officers in Mississippi.
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Both are lower than the national medium,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, the incomes are less than the annual wage of those earning in the bottom 10th percentile.
According to The Marshall Project, this is affecting the function of officers, especially those working in prisons.
Mississippi has the second-highest incarceration rate in the United States, but does not have the money to pay for the guards needed. Prison guards receive $24,670 a year.
Last year alone, 806 officers, half of the staff, quit their jobs.
Along with low paying positions, guards receive four weeks of training compared with 16 in Michigan and 12 in New York. The Marshall Project said this makes guards more susceptible to relying on violence to solve issues and trafficking in contraband items, such as cell phones, batteries, and drugs.
Department of Corrections commissioner Marshall Fisher requested an increase of $8.1 million mostly to fund raises for correctional officers.
“If I could do what I wanted, I’d increase salaries by 20 percent,” Fisher told the project. “We set them up for failure if we don’t give them the skills.”
Instead, the legislature cut the corrections budget by $8.4 million.
“There’s a price to be paid in Mississippi politics for saying we’ve got to use more funds,” Rep. Herb Frierson told The Mashall Project.
To raise salaries, Fisher is looking to cut money in other places, specifically ending prisoner work programs and rebidding medical and commissary services contracts.
State officials
told The New York Times that cutting the work programs will save Mississippi $3.2 million.
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