Charleston prison has nearly 100 employment openings

Business Today

CHARLESTON -- The Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston is looking to fill nearly 100 positions.

"We're getting ready to gear up and hire 94 staff members," said Donna McCondichie, correctional center superintendent.

Seventy-three of the jobs will be for CO I correctional officers, which are the Department of Correction's entry-level guard position. Twelve openings are for CO II sergeant-level guards.

The remaining jobs include case workers, unit managers, maintenance workers, recreation officers and a storekeeper.

The prison is located off Highway 105, south of Charleston.

For those with a strong work ethic and leadership skills, the "opportunity for promotion is definitely there," said McCondichie, a former corrections officer.

Applicants should receive word within 30 days if they will be listed on the register where eligible candidates for DOC jobs are ranked by their scores. As openings come up, the DOC hires from the top of the list.

People selected from the register will receive a hiring letter with a report date.

The next step is four days of orientation. On the fifth day, the new employees go to Jefferson City to pick-up their uniforms.

Next for the recruit is a four-week basic training course. Upon its completion, the new guards receive two weeks of on-the-job training, according to McCondichie. "Then we assign them to a shift."

As corrections officers, they will receive in-service training, and regularly retraining on such things as security counts, radio operation, use of force and searches.

The correctional center has been gradually increasing its prisoner population, and it is now at 1,082 medium-security prisoners, according to McCondichie.

The prison was designed and built to hold 1,500 maximum-security prisoners within the three-fence perimeter and an additional 96 minimum-security inmates outside the lethal fence.

McCondichie said plans are to fully populate the prison with medium-security inmates and then gradually transform the population to maximum security over the next couple of years.