Courtesy Photo This photo provided by the Michigan Department of Corrections shows a Correctional Officers Academy graduation ceremony in June 2017.

CHIPPEWA COUNTY — The Michigan Corrections Organization, the union representing state corrections officers, says officers “cannot continue” with an ongoing prison guard staffing crisis.

Throughout July, the union sought assistance from the state and the Michigan Department of Corrections, even calling for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to send the National Guard. Upper Peninsula lawmakers such as Ed McBroom, Dave Prestin, and Greg Markkanen have also been vocal about the issue.

“Corrections officers cannot continue at this pace,” Markkanen said in a statement. “MDOC is supposed to give corrections officers at least 32 hours between mandatory overtime shifts. Staffing shortages have caused countless violations of this policy, with many officers being required to work 16 hour shifts three to five days in a row … These officers go toe-to-toe with dangerous criminals every day. Yet, our corrections officers remain wildly understaffed, underpaid, and unappreciated by the administration.”

After waiting a month for a response from the governor, union members have decided to take matters into their own hands. The union is releasing a series of reports from inside multiple correctional facilities to highlight the struggles and dangers officers face on the job.

“We’re just trying to educate the public, educate our legislators and our governor what the struggle has been and implore them to take some steps,” Bryon Osborne, the president of the union, said. “And, when I say steps, I’m talking real, long-term answers. Enhancements to benefit packages, enhancement to compensation to get people to, first, come apply for the job, and, second, stay in the job, because, right now, we have neither.”

Corrections Department spokesperson Jenni Riehle said the department appreciates the work of the department’s staff and officials continue to work on long-term solutions that include recruitment, retention, and pay increases. She said a corrections officer academy recently started with just shy of 190 new recruits and the department is actively recruiting for the next academy that starts in October.

Riehle said the department plans to release a new statement on the staffing shortages sometime next week.

Osborne has been a corrections officer for 29 years, and he says the staffing shortage is a problem he’s been dealing with for years. He said the goal of the reports released by the union is to “pull back the curtain” and highlight how severe the situation has become and how dangerous being a correctional officer is.

For example, in the newest release on the Chippewa Correctional Facility in Kincheloe in the Upper Peninsula, the union revealed the correctional officer vacancy rate is now at 27%. During the month of July, almost 2,000 overtime shifts were clocked, and there were almost 250 violations of the Corrections Department’s 32-hour rule.

The reports also highlight incidents officers had to respond to or were subjected to. For example, the Chippewa facility saw 17 prison fights and seven assaults on officers during the month of July. Osborne said the increase in events may directly correlate with the understaffing.

“We’re obviously not running the prison with the number of officers we’re supposed to,” Osborne said. “In many instances, that results in prisoner activities being cramped down, because there’s not enough of us there to run it, which in turn leads to them getting frustrated and sometimes acting out. For example, these prisoners have yard periods where they get a scheduled amount of time where they can go outside. In many instances, those yard periods get reduced or even canceled because we were so short on staff. The prisoners, it doesn’t take very long before they get angry and they start acting up. So it’s a twofold problem.”

The union will hold an informational picket on Aug. 19 just outside the Chippewa Correctional Facility to further inform the public about the issue. Osborne said more pickets would be held during that week, and more reports from additional prisons will be released in the near future.

This story was produced by the Michigan News Group Internship Program, a collaboration between WCMU Public Media and local newspapers in central and northern Michigan. The program’s mission is to train the next generation of journalists and combat the rise of rural news deserts.