Fueled by chronic short-staffing and the hot, humid weather in July, violence has exploded in some of Michigan’s largest prisons.
A surge of inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-guard attacks, the setting of fires, and the destruction of property has prompted calls for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to send in the National Guard to help restore order.
Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization (MCO), told The Epoch Times, “Our prisons are not running safely. Five of our 26 state prisons are understaffed by 30 percent or more. Ours is an inherently dangerous profession compounded by this severe understaffing.”
According to Osborn, the union represents 93 percent of the state’s approximately 5,100 corrections officers and forensic security assistants. He has three decades of experience as a front-line corrections officer.
“Bringing in the National Guard is a temporary measure to keep people [inmates] monitored and keep them behind a fence,“ he said. ”The Guard can do that. It would provide needed relief for corrections officers working double shifts.”
Understaffing Alleged
A corrections officer who asked to be identified only by his first name, John, told The Epoch Times he has been on the job for 29 years. He described the toll the profession has taken on him and his colleagues.
John spoke of the numerous times corrections officers are forced to work 16 hours straight, go home, and come back eight hours later to work another 16 hours. He talked of being so exhausted that he would catch himself falling asleep at the wheel on his way to work.
“We eat poorly out of vending machines. There are times our minds are not working right. We don’t have a family life. We spend our days off sleeping. It leads to drinking. Half our people get divorced,” he said.
“We are treated like we are robots. It’s all about meeting the needs of the facility. We are disposable.”
John said things have been difficult for the last five years, but are currently the worst he has experienced.
“Today, we are at our biggest staff vacancy levels ever,” he said.
“I honestly don’t understand how the younger staff keep doing it. My kids are grown. I keep doing it because I have a pension and retiree health care. My co-workers have nothing to look forward to.
Pay Raise, New Recruits
In response to The Epoch Times’ request for an interview with MDOC Director Heidi Washington, MDOC public information officer Jenni Riehle provided a written statement.“The Department of Corrections continues to focus on solutions to its staffing challenges, including increasing maximum pay by over $12,000 per year for corrections officers since 2019, roughly $55 million in recruitment and retention bonuses over the last three years, and a year-round recruiting campaign for new officers,” the statement says.
“A Corrections Officer Academy recently started with 187 new officer recruits and the MDOC is actively recruiting for the next academy, which is scheduled to begin in October.”
Dangerous understaffing at state prisons has been a problem for six or seven years and has only “worsened” under Whitmer, according to Osborn.
“We have been unable to get an actual direct response from the governor. All her office does is refer us to the Michigan Department of Corrections. Ultimately, she is the boss and therefore our attention is focused on getting her to take action,” he said.
According to Osborn, prison operations are running “with far less than the required number of officers,” creating an “unsafe” prisoner-to-officer ratio, with officers forced to work alone in isolated areas.
Exacerbating the tensions are back-to-back 16-hour shifts, Osborn said.
“No other state employees are being subjected to these conditions,” he said. “We’ve been seeking effective relief solutions from the legislature and the MDOC for years and are now to the point of desperation.”
Osborn estimates that at least half the prisons in Michigan have staff vacancy rates of 15 percent or higher.
From July 1 through July 28, there were 785 corrections officer overtime shifts with 88 violations of MDOC’s overtime regulations.
During the same period, there were 519 “closed” officer positions across all three shifts.
A closed officer position means there was not an officer stationed at a required position inside the prison.
Prison logs attached to the report document 39 incidents of assault and property damage in those 28 days.
From July 1 to July 18, there were 350 closed officer positions, leaving that many mandatory posts unmanned. There were 544 corrections officer overtime shifts, and 135 violations of MDOC overtime rules.
In the first 17 days of July, prison logs document 17 instances of assault and property damage at Baraga.
Similar staffing statistics released in 2023 moved Republican State Rep. Sarah Lightner to request that the Michigan Office of the Auditor General investigate MDOC’s prison staffing problems.
Lightner’s district is the home of Southern Michigan State Penitentiary (also known as Jackson Prison).
In 2023, Auditor General Doug Ringler launched a formal inquiry into the situation at Baraga. The investigation is scheduled to be completed in late 2024.
This year, Ms. Lightner, along with several other Republican legislators, called for MDOC Director Washington’s resignation.
MDOC spokesperson Reihle addressed the recent violence in a phone interview with The Epoch Times.
Reihle said the MDOC “successfully completed a closure of a unit at the Baraga Correctional Facility in late July, reducing the daily staffing at the site by over 20 positions. This will reduce the frequency of mandatory overtime at the prison.”
Osborn described the Baraga unit closure as a “shuffle.”
“These prisoners didn’t go away. They were loaded on buses and moved to two other prisons,” he said.
Commenting on the MDOC statement, Osborn said his membership was grateful for the raises and bonuses, but that office workers in the Department of Natural Resources got a similar raise.
“All state employees got the same raises. There was no taking into account the dangerous working conditions our members are forced to endure every day,” he said. “The $1,500 signing bonus is not enough incentive to sway somebody to come into this environment.
“The mandatory overtime is increasing staff departures,” Osborn said. “Our members have personal lives, families, and their health to think about.”
According to Osborn, the 187 academy graduates won’t fill the vacancies in the four state prisons in Jackson, Michigan, alone.
“And that would mean the other 22 facilities around the state would get no one,” he said. “You can see the inadequacy of the number of academy recruits graduating quarterly.”
Osborn told The Epoch Times that the single most necessary step towards a solution to the understaffing problem is a “substantive change in benefits.”
“Specifically, if you want to recruit and retain people, we need to offer better post-retirement incentives. Make it worthwhile for people to stay on.”
Proposed bills to allow correction officers to choose to join the Michigan State Police Pension Plus retirement system merit support, Osborn said.
“For $18 million dollars per year, that can happen. The state has the money,” he said.
“It would make corrections work less of a ‘Stop ‘n Go’ job and more of an attractive career.”
