COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – At the same time the union representing corrections officers at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater and other prisons around Michigan is asking for state support to deal with ongoing staffing shortages, several lawmakers are asking for shake-ups within the Department of Corrections.
Michigan Corrections Organization President Byron Osborn asked Governor Gretchen Whitmer in a letter last week to deploy the Michigan National Guard to assist staff at the prisons. Osborn wrote that corrections officers are being forced to work “mandatory 16-hour overtime shifts” in order to keep prisons staffed.
In the letter he said “Corrections officers are STILL being forced to run prison operations with far less than the required number of officers, resulting in unsafe prisoner to officer ratios. Officers are forced to work alone in isolated areas, jeopardizing not only their safety but that of the prisoners.”
There about 1,000 unfilled employee positions at the state’s 26 prisons. The recently passed state budget appropriated $2.1 billion to the MDOC, but a provision was cut that would have set aside $12 million for signing and retention bonuses.
State Representative Sarah Lightner this week called for the immediate resignation of Michigan Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington, citing what she says are “Washington’s failure to address severe staffing shortages and dangerous working conditions for corrections officers during her nearly 10 years in charge of the department.”
State Senator Jonathan Lindsey, whose district includes the Lakeland Correctional Facility, says it’s a continuing problem.
In a statement, corrections department officials said, “The situation facing MDOC staff continues to be challenging, but the solution is not a temporary measure such as bringing in National Guard members who have not been trained to operate in this environment.”
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