Corrections Officers

A years-long staffing shortage has turned 16-hour mandatory shifts into a daily reality for corrections officers in Michigan's prison system, impacting the safety and wellbeing of nearly everyone inside prison walls.

Michigan has tried raises, bonuses, and prison safety initiatives, but nothing has moved the needle on corrections officers vacancies. No state has found a lasting solution.

Things are especially dire in the Upper Peninsula, where a quarter of prisoners are housed but nearly three-fourths of staff assaults happen and as many as 1 in 3 positions are open.

The Michigan Department of Corrections says it will improve security and increase safety in state facilities. This comes amid a years-long corrections officer staffing crisis. State data shows that 10 of Michigan's 26 corrections facilities have an officer vacancy rate of at least 20%.

Three bills that passed in the state legislature that would reform the corrections officer pension plan are stuck in legal limbo after House Republicans refused to send them to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

There were 15 assaults on staff and another 25 on prisoners at the St Louis Facility, according to the union's report.

The Michigan Corrections Organization says there are poor conditions at the Chippewa Correctional Facility in the eastern UP.

The department is looking for not only corrections officers, but health care and skilled trades staff to boost staffing levels at several state prisons across the state.

Officers will be hosting three informational pickets at correctional facilities in Marquette, Baraga and Chippewa counties next week.

Christopher Cluley will avoid incarceration after years of back and forth in the courts.