Michigan legislators recently signed letters urging the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) to increase the starting pay rate for all corrections facilities instead of just five facilities in the Upper Peninsula.
Thirty six Michigan representatives and ten state senators sent letters to the Director of MDOC, Heidi Washington.
“Short staffing is a problem across Michigan’s prisons,” State Senator Ed McBroom, who represents Michigan’s 38th said in a statement. “Better, more competitive pay is one important tool we must use to keep our newly trained officers from transferring to other states.”
This letter comes as support for the Michigan Corrections Organization union. President of MCU, Byron Osborn said MDOC did not consult the union when creating this incentive.
“While we acknowledge the fact that yes, those five facilities have been going through a staffing shortage for a number of years, so have the other 21,” Byron Osborn, the president of MCO, said. “So, our position as the union is that if the department is looking to do an incentive to attract new hires by way of giving them an accelerated bump in the pay scale, we believe that should be statewide.”
On May 28, MDOC announced that new correction officers from five different UP correction facilities will be receiving a pay raise of about $10,000 yearly. This will bump the starting wage from $23.45 to $28.24 hourly.
The facilities include:
- Marquette Branch Prison
- Baraga Correction Facility
- Alger Correctional Facility in Munising
- Kinross Correction Facility in Kincheloe
- Chippewa Correctional Facility in Kincheloe.
According to a MDOC press release on May 29, the pay raise would work to be an incentive to improve recruitment and retention. According to Interlochen Public Radio, U.P. prisons house around a fourth of the state’s inmates and record close to three quarters of assaults on prison staff due to staffing shortages. One in three positions within these prisons are not filled, according to the article.
“While those numbers are far too high, we’ve got a number of facilities in the Lower Peninsula that are running anywhere from 15 to 25% vacancies as well, which is still a huge problem,” Osborn said.
According to staffing reports from the MDOC, ten facilities in the Lower Peninsula have vacancy rates that are higher than 10%, while four of the five facilities in the U.P. have vacancy rates higher than 25%.
In an emailed statement, MDOC Public Information Officer Jenni Riehle said the department has supported increasing pay, citing that the department has invested over $55 million in recruitment and retention bonuses.
“The department supports increasing pay for all officers working for the department and has consistently supported initiatives to increase current officer pay,” Riehle wrote.
Now, state legislators who signed the letters and Osborn said they are hoping MDOC reconsiders who receives pay raises.
“Hopefully, at the end of the day here, with some added pressure from our friends in the legislature, we can get them to reconsider that,” Osborn said.
