Overtime costs at the Connecticut Department of Correction grew by $40 million between 2020 and 2025, and $5 million of that increase has come from DOC nursing staff, where some nurses are earning upwards of $483,000 per year, nearly tripling their salary with overtime, which then counts toward their pension.
Between 2020 and 2025, overtime costs for licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, and head nurses have increased from $9.5 million to $14.2 million, while employee numbers have remained relatively stable, increasing by only nine employees. On average, DOC nurses are bringing in between $30,000 and $44,000 in overtime, boosting their salaries significantly.
But the overtime isn’t evenly spread around, with some employees earning sums far surpassing $200,000 per year, while others earn near their base salary. One head nurse went from earning $119,050 in 2019 to $483,604 in 2022, earning nearly two-and-a-half times his base salary in overtime. Between 2020 and 2025, that same head nurse had three years earning well over $400,000, and the other two years, in excess of $200,000.
A registered nurse with DOC saw his pay increase from just over $200,000 in 2020 to $343,172 in 2025; and a licensed practical nurse – who works under the supervision of a registered nurse – went from earning $195,757 in 2020, to $291,763 in 2025, well in excess of his $85,000 per year salary, according to state payroll records.
While DOC employees can be mandated to work overtime, all three men have worked more than – or are approaching – twenty years of employment with the state, making them eligible for retirement with a full pension that includes overtime earnings when calculating the annual payout.
Overall, DOC nursing payroll for all three positions has increased from $31.2 million in 2020 to $43.4 million in 2025; however, the number of nursing employees has remained relatively steady, albeit with some changes in which positions are more fully staffed.
The number of registered nurses working for DOC decreased in those five years by 57 positions, but the overall number of employees remained relatively unchanged at 384, as DOC added 62 licensed practical nurses, whose salaries are generally lower, and four head nurses, whose salaries are typically higher. According to labor statistics, the average salary for a registered nurse in 2025 was $105,250, and $72,580 for a licensed practical nurse.
Healthcare is one of the biggest and fastest-growing industries in Connecticut and nationally, and the need for nurses has made it one of the most abundant sources of employment.
Connecticut DOC took back control over patients’ healthcare from the UConn Health Center in 2018 following reports that found serious problems with inmate healthcare that resulted in numerous deaths. However, even after DOC took over inmate healthcare, SEIU 1199, the union representing DOC healthcare workers, noted that in 2019 there were 309 nurses, one for every 45 patients at the time.
Nurses act as “the backbone of correctional healthcare,” according to a 2021 deep-dive study into Connecticut’s DOC healthcare system by Health Management Associates, that noted there was “no simple formula for nurse-to-patient ratios in corrections,” and that, “CT DOC must evaluate the unique demands of various patient settings.”
According to the 2025 numbers that put the prison population at 11,136, the nurse-to-patient ratio had declined to one nurse for every twenty-nine patients, but the twenty-four-hour nature of agencies like DOC means overtime can build up significantly.
DOC remains Connecticut’s largest source of overtime costs, which have increased year-over-year, reaching $316.3 million in 2025. The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), which employs nurses and doctors at its various mental health facilities, has the second-highest cost of overtime, amounting to $62.9 million.
Records from 2025 show DMHAS Head Nurses made $3.9 million in overtime; nurses made $1.59 million in overtime, and LPNs made $2.7 million. The top earner out of the three positions was a head nurse who received $325,850 in 2025.
State pensions are typically based on the employee’s three highest-earning years, and often employees will ensure a worker who is approaching retirement age receives as much overtime as possible to increase their earnings – an unacknowledged practice known as pension or overtime spiking.
A 2025 study by Yankee Institute and the Townsend Group found top DOC overtime earners were earning 200 percent more than their salary in overtime and retiring with pensions 35 percent higher than their last salary on average, although some received pensions 58 percent higher than their final salary.
A 2026 report by the Correction Ombudsman found significant delays for thousands of inmates awaiting outpatient specialized care, including those with cancer. A doctor for DOC was recently placed on leave after a report by the Correction Ombudsman that documented numerous allegations of unprofessional and questionable behavior.
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