Pelican Bay adding 30 more CO’s

27 guards began new jobs Monday

Pelican Bay State Prison has added 30 correctional officers as part of a statewide prison realignment meant to reduce prison populations by at least 30,000 inmates over the next few years.

As a result of the reduction, 3,400 state prison employee positions are in danger, so the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has given employees options to transfer to understaffed prisons as a way to mitigate some layoffs.

Twenty-seven correctional officers began their first day at the prison on Monday and three others have recently started.

Pelican Bay has typically been understaffed due to its remote location,  said Lt. Christopher Acosta, the prison’s public information officer.

“It’s hard to keep people here because of the area,” said Acosta, adding that the isolation and weather drives new correctional officers to transfer closer to their hometowns in Central and Southern California after a couple of years.

There currently is no plan to reduce Pelican Bay’s inmate population. It was labeled as one of five understaffed prisons in the state that needed to add rather than lose employees.

There are approximately 794 correctional officers at Pelican Bay, Acosta said. It is expected  more correctional officers will transfer to Pelican Bay in the near future, he added.

About 30,000 layoff warning notifications were sent to CDCR employees in October, including some Pelican Bay workers. Those employees who will be laid off will receive notice a month in advance of the Feb. 29 scheduled date for layoffs.

This is the first of several layoff rounds to come; the next one will begin in March.

Reach Anthony Skeens at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it