Working conditions at prisons in Michigan are not improving.
Employees say vacancies, mandatory overtime, and assaults on prison guards are among their concerns. Byron Osborne is the president of the Michigan Corrections Organization.
“The department’s ability to recruit and retain is just, it’s not there,” Byron said. “And part of it’s not their fault, in our opinion. We directly place this blame at the governor’s feet and at our full Legislature’s feet. The Department of Corrections themselves, they don’t have the authority to reinstate post-retirement benefits, which we believe is the only thing that’s going to get us over this hump and get people to start applying for these jobs.”
Byron says there needs to be changes, and those changes need to be led by whoever the next governor is.
The officers are leaving the jobs in part because of forced 16-hour days over and over, and Osborne says something needs to give.
