MI prison officers call for National Guard help

BLACKMAN TWP. Mich. (WLNS) – Staffing issues are a known problem in public safety. For the union representing corrections officers, they are now calling for the Michigan National Guard to help bolster their ranks.

“I have to hear stories of wives that are giving their husbands ultimatums. The single mothers that are having a hard time with daycare, getting people to help raise their children,” said Cary Johnson, a corrections officer at the G. Robert Cotton Corrections Facility in Blackman Township.

Johnson is also the union representative and vice president of the Michigan Corrections Organization. She has been on the job for 29 years and says the position is becoming “unsustainable” due to a staffing shortage. She says the facility has 95 vacancies which have left those clocking in working mandatory 16-hour shifts.

In a scathing letter to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the president of the union, Byron Osborn, called for immediate help.

“Under your watch, state corrections officers continue to suffer unlike any other state employees ever have in the history of Michigan,” said Osborn in the letter dated July 3.

Johnson said guard members would work with corrections officers in a custody support position.

“We know that our military is used to this type of environment or can be trained in this area. They would most likely pass our physical fitness requirements and lein requirements, and we are asking for help so we can go to our families” said Johnson.

She says the recent state budget did very little to improve the staffing situation and that proposals failed to make the final draft.

A spokesperson with the Michigan Department of Corrections said in a statement that the department is focusing on recruitment and retention.

They say previous efforts have paid off.

“As of the MDOC’s last report to the Legislature in April , the vacancy level at facilities ranged between 4.3% and 36.3% for officers. Half of the MDOC’s prisons are now operating with vacancies under 15% and 8 facilities have a vacancy rate at 5% or below,” said a department spokesperson.

While staffing challenges persist, MDOC is pushing back on the union’s idea.

“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.” said an MDOC official.

Johnson says she hopes the move leads government members to see what she says is a full picture of a staffing shortage that risks more than just long work hours.

“We want to be safe and it doesn’t feel like we don’t have the support that we need,’ she said.

Using National Guard members to staff prisons is not a new idea. Last spring, the governor of West Virginia ended a two-year state of emergency that called up more than 730 National Guard members to help work in 17 corrections facilities.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.