Lawmakers say staffing shortages in Michigan prisons reaching 'the point of desperation'

(The Center Square) – Michigan Republican lawmakers sounded the alarm on the deteriorating state of prisons in the Upper Peninsula and across the state, with severe staffing shortages, property damage and assaults on guards remaining largely unaddressed for years.

State Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah, and state Rep. Greg Markkanen were among those who demanded immediate action from Michigan Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington after legislative committee audits and union reports revealed the systemic administrative failures.

“Director Washington has failed to fix or even address the damning staffing shortages within our prisons,” McBroom said. “I have been warning the state for more than 10 years about the dangers of administration policies that are making our prisons more dangerous for both prisoners and state employees. My committee investigations have highlighted numerous failed policies and lack of success at increasing the ranks of officers – which is by far the biggest threat to safety. Director Washington must either resolve this crisis or find a leader who can.”

Among those failed policies discovered by the 2021 investigations found all five MDOC prisons in the U.P. had growing recidivism rates, inmate unrest and assaults on guards, reduced security levels, and correctional officers’ overtime shifts reaching illegal levels.

President Byron Osborn of the Michigan Corrections Organization, the union which represents MDOC employees, sent a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in early July, requesting that she deploy the Michigan National Guard to correctional facilities, given the continued severity of the staffing shortage and resulting prisoner incidents.

“We’ve been seeking effective relief solutions from the Legislature and MDOC for years and are now to the point of desperation,” Osborn wrote. “On behalf of all the state corrections officers represented by our organization, I am formally requesting that you activate the Michigan National Guard to provide immediate custody support to prisons in dire need of it while we work directly with you to find realistic, permanent relief measures.”

The MCO has reported particularly egregious situations in the Marquette Branch Prison, the Baraga Correctional Facility, the Kinross Correctional Facility, and the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in the past three months.

State Rep. Sarah Lightner, R-Springport, has called on Washington, who has served nearly 10 years as MODC’s director, to resign.

“We’ve seen a net loss of corrections officers every single year for the last six years, putting our corrections officers who remain on the job in an increasingly dangerous situation,” Lightner said. “Despite the evident crisis, Director Washington has failed to implement a plan to address the critical staffing shortages, which has resulted in severe low morale, depression, anxiety, and fear among our dedicated corrections officers.”

Other U.P. Republicans have advocated pay increases for prison employees. McBroom co-sponsored Michigan Senate Bills 156 and 157, supported by Markkanen, which would improve retirement benefits for corrections officers. There has been no legislative action taken on the bills since they were introduced in March of 2023.