• Lawmakers in 2024 passed legislation allowing corrections officers to join the Michigan State Police pension plan, but the bills were never sent to the governor
• The Michigan Supreme Court ordered the bills sent to the governor, but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed them, citing passed deadlines she said could’ve opened the state to more litigation
• Corrections officers and their advocates had hoped the pensions would’ve helped with staff recruitment and retention, alleviating severe staffing shortages in Michigan prisons

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Michigan’s corrections community is expressing shock and disappointment over Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent veto of bipartisan bills advocates say could have mitigated the state’s dangerous prison staffing crisis.

Current and former corrections officers say high staff vacancy rates at Michigan’s prisons that lead to mandatory overtime shifts are straining corrections officers to the point of burnout. That makes it difficult for officers to control inmates, leading to more assaults on staff and fellow inmates.

The situation is especially dire in the Upper Peninsula, where vacancy rates reach as high as 40% and where a quarter of the state’s inmates are housed but nearly three-quarters of assaults on prison staff happen.

Advocates had pinned their hopes on bipartisan legislation passed nearly two years ago that would’ve allowed corrections officers to opt into the Michigan State Police’s pension system instead of their current 401(k) plan, which advocates believed would help with recruitment and retention. 

The legislation was part of a host of bills never sent to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk over political bickering, which led to a lengthy court battle that ended with the Michigan Supreme Court ordering the bills sent to Whitmer. 

Then Whitmer vetoed them, saying the legislation referenced expired deadlines that would have led to more litigation.

Advocates weren’t happy. 

“She killed those bills,” said Byron Osborn, a 31-year veteran of the Michigan Department of Corrections and president of a union representing about 6,000 corrections workers. Michigan House Speaker “Matt Hall presented them to her. I don’t even know if a half-hour passed before she just killed ‘em.” 

“My stomach just dropped,” said Melissa Perron, a political newcomer from Sault Ste. Marie running for the 107th state House District seat whose husband is a corrections officer. “You look at the surrounding states and their starting pay, they’re higher than Michigan, plus they have things like a pension and retirement.”

Under a 401(k) plan, employees’ payments into the system are set but the benefits paid at retirement are not and are based on market returns. The bills Whitmer vetoed would have allowed corrections officers to move into a hybrid pension system, in which their benefits are guaranteed and based on their average compensation at the end of their careers. Employees could have had to wait longer to retire — 55 for the pension plan versus 50 for the 401(k) plan — but they could bank on what they’d receive in retirement.

The move would cost the state up to $37.8 million a year, according to the Michigan House Fiscal Agency.

The latest Department of Corrections’ vacancy data shows continued staff shortages at many of the department’s 26 prisons, and critical incidents have made headlines in recent months. 

The department has dealt with a string of inmate deaths at the state’s only women’s prison, general allegations of unsafe living conditions, a prisoner death from a fall at Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center, a prisoner death at Chippewa Correctional Facility following an altercation in his cell and assaults by prisoners on officers at Marquette Branch Prison.

Five of the six prisons the Department of Corrections operates in the UP repeatedly reported vacancy rates as high as 40 percent, which Osborn and others say compromises officer and inmate safety and well-being. 

Recruiting and retaining officers is a nationwide problem, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, retirement and health benefit cuts, and, in the UP, by a comparatively sparse population where corrections workers often have long and seasonally hazardous commutes. 

Perron and her husband have five children and mandated overtime has some corrections officers working back-to-back eight-hour shifts six days a week, leaving little time for family, friends or sleep. 

Whitmer’s veto, she said, landed in her household with a thud. 

People considering a career in corrections and who live in the western UP can commute across the border into Wisconsin seeking better pay and benefits. 

Michigan’s starting officer pay was recently increased from $23 an hour to $28 an hour, compared to $33 an hour to $38 an hour for Wisconsin Department of Corrections officer jobs. 

Whitmer, in a July 15 letter about the vetoes addressed to “teammates,” acknowledged corrections officers have tough jobs, work long hours and make sacrifices to keep the state safe.

“These bills were good policy,” Whitmer said. “They expanded existing retirement options and would have improved officer retention and helped you feel more secure in your future. I want those benefits for you.” 

Whitmer said she vetoed the bills because the long-passed deadlines would have been a hollow win. 

“Under the terms of these bills not a single person would have been eligible to join the hybrid pension plan,” Whitmer said, “and we would expect to see more years of delay, as litigants and courts untangled how to implement an expired enrollment period.”

Not everyone agrees that was a reason to veto, including Harbor Springs engineer Brendan Ryan, who is also running in the Democratic primary for the 107th House seat. 

Ryan said those details could have been worked out without a veto. He lamented the gamesmanship behind the delay in getting legislation to the governor and said politicians have eroded the agency working-class Michiganders once had over their futures.

“And if they (incumbent Republicans) think . . . there is nothing we need to do and the best course of action is to sit here and do nothing, they should really step down,” he said. 

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican incumbent Parker Fairbairn, also of Harbor Springs, who did not return a call seeking comment. 

The problem shows no sign of easing. 

As of May, nearly 30% of staff jobs at Chippewa — where Perron’s husband works — were vacant, up slightly from the department’s January figures. 

Three other UP prisons, Alger Correctional Facility, Baraga Correctional Facility and Marquette Branch Prison, all posted vacancy rates of at least 32%, with Baraga at 40%. 

In the UP, only Newberry, a minimum security facility where officers can work single 12-hour shifts, reported a full staff. 

Osborn, in a frank, frustrated July 14 update to union members, said leadership was considering next steps. 

“This membership deserved better from a sitting governor that knew about the MDOC shit show for her whole bit,” Osborn said. 

Whitmer, in her letter, said she was open to signing new versions of the bills extending pension benefits to corrections officers. But her second term is winding down, and with it time the Legislature has to pass updated bills. 

Whitmer is term-limited and cannot seek reelection. Voters will choose a new governor and vote on lawmakers — many of them also new — in November. 

The state Legislature is currently on summer recess, and will reconvene July 29. 

WCMU’s Rick Brewer contributed to this report.

This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.

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