Department of Correctional Services

Adirondack Correctional Facility: Swapping Practices

The Department of Correctional Services allows employees doing similar work to exchange work hours (swapping). Any employee who works a swapped shift is prohibited by law from accepting payment for the shift. However, we received two complaints alleging that numerous correction officers at Adirondack Correctional Facility routinely paid other officers to work their shifts. One of the complaints alleged that the officers making the payments worked at other jobs outside the Facility, and the officers receiving the payments did not report the extra income to government tax agencies.

We examined selected payroll practices at the Facility and identified ten officers who, over a 51-month period, arranged for someone else to work (swapped) between 32 and 94 percent of their scheduled work time. At the time of our audit, eight of the ten officers owed more than 200 work shifts each. We also identified six officers who were owed more than 100 work shifts each, including one officer who was owed more than 600 shifts. While no officer admitted making or receiving payments for the swapped shifts, we conclude there is a strong likelihood that some of these officers violated State law and paid others, or were paid by others, to work swapped shifts. We determined that the abusive swapping practices were not detected by Facility management because of weaknesses in internal controls. At our request, the New York State Inspector General's Office has opened an investigation into this matter.

For a complete copy of Report 99-S-21 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.
For a copy of the associated follow-up report click here.