By VICKIE FEE

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — The Marquette Branch Prison has seen picketing this week as the Michigan Corrections Organization held a series of protests to highlight staffing shortages and working conditions at the prison.

Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization, has been releasing a series of reports to make lawmakers aware of extra danger to prison staff due to what the group calls severe staff shortages.

Job vacancy rates are high in Upper Peninsula prisons. Marquette Branch Prison and Baraga Corrections Facility each have 34% of jobs vacant, Alger Correctional Facility is at 33% unfilled jobs, and Chippewa Corrections stands at 30%.

The shortages have led to high levels of mandated overtime and double shifts.

The corrections officers at the Marquette Branch Prison, a maximum-security state prison, work under severe stress and dangerous conditions. Officers are forced to work double shifts multiple times per week, according to a recent MCO report, which also says that every day, the prison runs with far fewer officers than required, resulting in prisoner activities being limited or canceled. This leads to disturbances and assaults on officers when prisoners get frustrated.

“These are the highest security level prisons in the state. These are generally not the most cooperative prisoners. There’s a reason they’re in Level 5. It’s because they’re dangerous and generally don’t follow the rules,” Osborn said.

Corrections officers picketed across from the entrance to Marquette Branch Prison on Wednesday to raise public awareness of the severe staff shortages and dangerous and unfair conditions for prison staff.

Over the past six years, 2,000 corrections officers have resigned and Michigan Department of Corrections has suffered a net loss of more than 1,250 officers, according to MCO communications coordinator Adam Earley.

“The job vacancy rate in the Upper Peninsula is much higher than in lower Michigan,” he said.

A recent MCO report shows that the 2024 average job vacancy rate in the U.P. was 23.9% compared to a statewide vacancy average of 16%. August vacancies were 24.9% in the U.P., compared to 10.8% in lower Michigan facilities.

MCO released a summary of incidents from July that happened at the Marquette Branch Prison.

From July 1-28, there were 785 corrections officer overtime shifts. Of those 326 shifts were mandatory overtime, and most of the rest worked voluntary overtime to avoid mandatory shifts. There were 88 violations of the MDOC’s 32-hour rule, which is a policy designed to protect officers from excessive overtime. In July, there were also 519 “closed” officer positions across all three shifts. A closed officer position means that there wasn’t an officer stationed at a required position inside the prison.

Dangerous incidents in July included officers breaking up a fight among three prisoners fighting with weapons on the Level 5 yard; general population Level 5 yard canceled due to disruptive prisoners and short staffing; officers broke up prisoners fighting in a housing unit — tasers were used to stop the fight; prisoners started a fire in a housing unit and officers extinguished the fire; security rounds were suspended due to prisoners throwing bodily fluids and other items through the cell bars in an attempt to assault officers; protective clothing and a pepper ball gun were employed to protect officers from assault; and prisoner yard was canceled due to multiple prisoner fights.

Many injuries were inflicted on corrections officers in these incidents reported for July.

“Some of the injuries required medical attention,” Earley said.

A corrections officer academy started in July with 187 new officer recruits and the MDOC is actively recruiting for the next academy which is set to begin in October, according to the MDOC. Recruits in that class will be eligible for starting pay of $21.50 per hour and will reach top pay of $68,500 per year, before overtime, after three-and-a-half years of service as a corrections officer.

State Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township of the 38th District said officers sacrifice a lot to keep facilities running.

“It’s a dangerous time,” he said. “You look at the amount of hours they’re working overtime. You look at the number of mandates they’re working, how many hours and it’s not healthy for our workers. It’s not good for their families. It’s certainly not fair to them and it is a dangerous thing to do.”

Vickie Fee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 542. Her email address is vfee@miningjournal.net