Rep. Greg Markkanen holds up two signs alongside officers and their supporters at last week’s informational picket outside of Baraga Correctional Facility. (Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette)

Last Thursday, the Michigan House Republicans issued a press release clarifying that they stand with corrections officers across Michigan regarding the staffing crisis, and not the leadership of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC).

The release came the day after the third demonstration outside of prisons in the Upper Peninsula of which state politicians from the U.P. stood side-by-side with corrections officers and picketed with them to raise awareness of the dangers that are arising in Michigan prisons due to staffing shortages that are slowly nearing 40% vacancies within some facilities. The short staffing leads to multiple mandatory overtime shifts which has exhausted officers and deprived them of participating in life outside of work.

The release was critical of the lack of response from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to the crisis, the leadership of the MDOC Director Heidi Washington, and the bill introduced by Rep. Jenn Hill, D-Marquette, which would remove the 15 college credits required to qualify for an officer position within the MDOC. The corrections officers’ union Michigan Corrections Organization’s (MCO) president Byron Osborn had requested the National Guard to give temporary relief to the officers in the critically short staffed prisons on July 3 and the governor has yet to respond.

Republican representatives and an overwhelming number of corrections officers believe that Washington is an inefficient leader in addressing the crisis and she has been requested to step down if she cannot effectively confront the issue. The bill Hill is introducing was supported by the MDOC in their own press release, but the Republican House release points out that the MCO and its officers have expressed that the removal of the credits does not address the immediate dangers and problems.

“Not only does this de-professionalize our officers – a repeat of the food service worker disaster – but it does nothing to help the immediate crisis that is leading so many just hired officers to leave the job within a short time,” Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, said in the press release.

The press release also included Rep. Greg Markkanen’s, R-Hancock, view on the situation regarding Hill’s proposed bill.

“Corrections officers have lost faith in their own department leadership. Apparently, that failing leadership was the only input Representative Hill sought before announcing her plan,” he said.

The release also expressed that officers said that removing the educational requirements could allow criminals to become hirable at facilities and stretch contraband trade and increase communication within criminal networks. Within the release, Osborn reiterated that Hill’s bill will not resolve the crisis, that the action needed from politicians should result in immediate aid, and that longterm solutions that should be sought would attract those interested in criminal justice and thus the best applicants for officer positions.

The release then went over the changes needed to make the career attractive again, which includes better salaries, better schedules, improved working conditions, enhanced benefits and post-employment benefits. Rep. Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River, went over this and explained how the MDOC has failed in their approach to fixing the staffing crisis in the press release.

“The department is shoveling money into a traveling circus that jumps from job fair to job fair, basically begging people to become corrections officers,” Prestin said. “What they don’t tell you is six out of 10 officers leave just a few months into the job, once they realize how little they’re paid to work in a war zone waiting to explode and have no solid family life. MDOC needs to fund the things that matter, like increased pay and benefits.”

The release then ended explaining that Prestin has experience in addressing a similar, yet smaller, scaled situation. Prestin served as a Menominee County commissioner and helped solve the staffing shortage at the Menominee County Jail. The county turned overtime funds into an increase for the county corrections deputies. McBroom, Markkanen, and Prestin believe this can work on a statewide level as well.

This release is congruent of many opinions and criticisms corrections officers shared at the informational pickets outside of Marquette Branch Prison, Baraga Correctional Facility, Chippewa Correctional Facility and Kinross Correctional Facility. Several officers expressed that the idea of removing the college credits does not solve the immediate dangers growing inside the facilities and that the bill comes off as “tone-deaf.” Officers at the picket said that they want to believe that their fellow officers can be relied on for support in dangerous circumstances, and that lowering the standards can compromise that faith.

Some officers also expressed that they do not have confidence in Democratic politicians and that conditions will not improve unless Republicans take back control of the Michigan House and Senate in November. Several corrections officers feel that the Democrats are anti-law enforcement and that they will side with prisoners over officers on most issues within the MDOC.  

“Heidi Washington needs to be fired, and Gretchen Whitmer needs to resign immediately,” an officer said at the picket outside of Baraga Correctional Facility.

The opinion of the governor is far from positive amongst many officers, and some even believe that she shoulders most of the blame for the staffing crisis alongside the MDOC director. The low opinion of the governor was expressed by officers, who pointed out that ever since the request for the National Guard was made, Whitmer has yet to address that letter, yet she made time to participate in events for the 2024 presidential election.

Outside of the release, Markkanen has said that change is likely only possible with actions from the governor and the director of the MDOC.

“We can’t force the governor or the director to do anything,” he said.  “It’s really a battle of public opinion and I think that unfortunately nothing can happen until they make a move. We don’t want to lose anybody to suicide or any type of insurrection or fight in the prison, and we don’t want to lose prisoners either.”

The pickets outside the state prisons that occurred last week shall continue in the Lower Peninsula with an informational picket scheduled for today in Jackson.