Staff Overtime Helps Put Alaska DOC More than $24 Million Over Budget

The Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) spent more than $24 million above and beyond their state legislature-approved budget in 2025, with a large chunk of that money going to pay for staff overtime.

As the Alaska Beacon recently reported, data the department provided to the Senate Finance Committee showed there were 15 correctional staff that earned more $100,000 each in overtime pay in 2025, on top of salary and benefits. Two correctional officers at the Anchorage Correctional Complex worked more than 2,000 hours in overtime last year, with one earning a total of more than $225,000 last year.

The department requested an additional $20 million for staffing and overtime for last year at the state’s 13 prison and jail facilities, according to the Beacon, which noted that Alaska DOC officials have said the additional funding was needed to meet staffing requirements for “24/7 operational readiness.”

The spending raised concerns among finance committee members, some of whom shared their dismay at a Feb. 19 meeting.

Bert Stedman, co-chair of the finance committee, said the DOC’s budget “has been growing exponentially. It’s not fair, because those funds that are being channeled in that direction could go elsewhere.”

Finance committee member Mike Cronk questioned whether DOC employees were “running up overtime for a short time in order to retire or leave the department,” the Beacon’s Corinne Smith wrote.

“So, it’s very concerning. You know, obviously I don’t blame anybody for it, but we have to figure out why this is happening, and we just have to do better,” Cronk said. “We have to be more efficient and make sure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to keep costs down.”