Passaic County Sheriff’s Department

The Passaic County Sheriff's Department has issued another round of pink slips to 55 employees, more than a third of whom are corrections officers at the Passaic County Jail. Letters were sent recently to workers affected by the layoff plan, said a Department of Personnel spokeswoman. The plan calls for the dismissal of 20 corrections officers, 19 sheriff officers and 16 clerical positions. The president of the corrections officers union said that the staff cuts could lead to jail conditions becoming unsafe for both employees and inmates. Since December, the sheriff's department has cut about 150 positions from its payroll, according to county records. As of June 1, the department employed 742 people. The recent layoffs were the sheriff's latest staff reductions stemming from $21 million in cuts to the department's budget enacted by the freeholders. Inmates from Philadelphia were brought in to replace some of the revenue lost when the federal government withdrew its prisoners from the jail back in March.