By C1 Staff
LANSING, Mich. — As the executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization plans to retire, he’s unsure of the future for correctional officers in Michigan.
Between privatization, a shortage of officers and an “anti-union flavor,” Mel Grieshaber says morale is at its lowest that he’s ever seen, according to the Lansing Journal.
While Grieshaber describes the Mich. Department of Corrections as ‘in crisis mode,’ spokesman Chris Gautz disagrees.
The DOC plans to hire 1,000 officers in 2015, and employee surveys show improving morale due to focused initiatives throughout the department.
Grieshaber says there are many reasons why the MDOC is seeing a loss of recruits; budget cuts led to the centralized academy being shut down. Officer training is now handled by colleges around the state, and new recruits are responsible for their own tuition and are only hired on after graduation. He said a 2012 program to allow retirees to come back without giving up their pension saved just a fraction of its goal.
A shortage of officers means $45 million in overtime and some officers working double shifts. This makes overworked officers less vigilant, and puts their lives in jeopardy.
Gautz countered by saying the MDOC is “doing an outreach like the department has never done before … trying to get ahead of [shortages] as best we can.”
MDOC has billboards, job fairs and the like promoting open positions. The department has also started a grant program to help some recruits cover half the cost of training.
Gautz could neither confirm nor deny the reopening of the centralized academy.
Grieshaber said his successor will have to deal with a new anti-public-employee fervor that will make it difficult to work with legislators.
State Rep. Dave Pagel, the new chairman of the state House subcommittee in charge of corrections spending, says he “looks forward to meeting with all the stakeholders” and promises to take a more pragmatic approach to Grieshaber’s concerns.
He said he wouldn’t rule out a push for new investments in recruit training despite projected revenue shortfalls for the state budget, saying he wants to “meet the challenge head-on.”