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Madison — The state Department of Corrections gave at least eight high-level workers up to 15% in pay increases over the past year, including four who collected three raises or bonuses in six months.

The significant raises for the prison psychologists were among those uncovered in a new review of salary increases in the state prisons agency by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In some cases, those raises were simply given for switching from one work location to another, a tactic aimed at stemming a loss in experienced psychologists, a spokeswoman said.

Gov. Scott Walker's administration has repeatedly made such transfers to evade state rules limiting workers' pay increases, including eight wardens who received up to 13% raises for switching from one prison to another. The raises for a number of top officials within the prisons department contrast with those given to rank-and-file guards, whose take-home pay is still down sharply since 2010.

Marty Beil, a union leader who has worked with corrections employees for decades, said the raises technically satisfied state rules but wouldn't sit well with the front-line officers guarding inmates.

"In the past, we never saw these kinds of games played," Beil said. "Corrections officers see their warden getting a 13% raise and they wonder, 'Why can't I have that?'"

Department spokeswoman Joy Staab said the psychology positions have had "very quick turnover" and are difficult to fill, given that it's hard to find people willing to work in a prison who have the education and licensing requirements needed. She said uniform higher salaries were established for current and newly hired psychologists.

"This strategy was used to address tremendous retention and equity issues for psychologists and psychologist supervisors," Staab said.

The salary increases came at a time when corrections officers and other state employees received a standard 1% pay raise and are still adjusting to a 2011 labor law that cut the overall compensation of state employees and greatly reduced the power of the unions representing them.

The latest review by the Journal Sentinel found that, in addition to their 1% bump, some upper-level managers in the department received additional raises of up to 28% over the past year. In most cases, those wage increases were given for promotions — but not always.

State rules put certain limits on raises for civil service employees — the workers who aren't political appointees. But there are some ways of evading those rules, including job transfers such as those given to Capitol Police Chief Dave Erwin last year.

Some get healthy raises

Prison workers, mostly psychologists, who moved into the same job at a different work site saw a nice return in recent months:

■Daniel Huneke, a supervising psychologist, moved between institutions in September and saw his pay rise to about $78,800, up from $68,300. That's an increase of $10,500, or just over 15%. Huneke also received a one-time bonus of $750 in June 2013.

■Raymond Wood, a supervising psychologist transferred from Fox Lake Correctional Institutional to Columbia Correctional Institutional in January, receiving another salary increase to go with a merit raise that Corrections officials had awarded him only the month before. These two raises once again came on top of the 1% June raise to all state employees and increased Wood's pay to roughly $78,800 from $73,000. That's a bump of $5,800, or nearly 8%.

■ Wayne Olson, corrections center superintendent, transferred to another institution in September and received a raise of 5.9%. In December, five other psychologists transferred to the same job in other work sites and received raises between 3% and 5% in addition to their standard June raise. In addition, psychology manager Rosemary Kleman and supervising psychologist Steven Schmidt received one-time bonuses of $750 in June 2013.

Pay comparison planned

Actual promotions accounted for some larger increases in salary among corrections managers. For instance, Bradley Hoover was promoted in July to a corrections center superintendent from a job as a supervising officer and saw his salary increase by nearly 28% to $74,900.

In March, the state Department of Corrections told the Journal Sentinel that the agency couldn't provide any documentation of a salary comparison that it said was done last year to justify the warden pay increases. The newspaper's March report prompted Gov. Scott Walker to call for a review, though the inquiry by a political appointee ultimately backed up the Corrections Department.

Last week, the Walker administration said that by this fall it would compare the salaries for corrections officers in Wisconsin with those in neighboring states to determine whether they are underpaid or overpaid compared with those other states.

Greg Gracz, the head of the state Office of State Employment Relations, agreed to the study after several GOP lawmakers called for it in March.State Sen. Rick Gudex (R-Fond du Lac) and Reps. Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh) and Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-Fond du Lac) were responding to complaints from members of the prison guards union living in their districts.