By BEN GARBACZ

Houghton Daily

Mining Gazette

LANSING — On Oct. 30, the Michigan Senate passed bills SB0165-SB0167 that bring corrections officers and other types of law enforcement, such as conservation officers, into a pension system. All bills passed with 25 yeas, 12 nays and 1 excused for each. Those bills passed amid a search for solutions to the Michigan Department of Corrections staffing crisis, which has some facilities in the state facing nearly 40 percent vacancies.

Due to the vacancies, officers are constantly mandated for 16-hour shifts, and this has severely affected their mental and physical health, as well as devastated their social lives, and prisoners do not have full access to their services, such as yard time due to understaffing.

In late summer, officers and their supporters picketed outside prisons across Michigan, demanding changes to help their needs and make the profession more attractive to potential hires. One of the things that many officers during these pickets mentioned would help retain officers in the field and make the job seem desirable was the reintroduction of a pension.

Now that the bills have passed the Senate, they will appear before the Michigan House in their next session. The votes were unanimous among Democratic senators, with five Republicans crossing the aisle to approve the bill.

Among the five Republicans were the two senators who represent districts within the UP and joined the officers in the pickets, Senators John Damoose of Michigan’s 37th District and Ed McBroom of Michigan’s 38th District. McBroom has in the past introduced bills SB0156 and SB0157 that address detention issues for Michigan corrections officers, though the bills have not come to fruition.

Still, the current bills have many similarities, and McBoom said he felt a great sense of accomplishment when he saw the bills have a chance to move forward. While on the Senate floor, McBroom explained his reasoning for voting in favor of the bills, but also said he shared some criticisms with the 12 senators who voted against, such as the inclusion of other professions.

“I agree that there were other methods and ways to approach this,” he said. “And we’ve been working on this problem for many years, but the urgency we have to fix it right now can’t be avoided. We are in a crisis, a staffing crisis and a violence crisis in our state facilities.”

McBroom then said retention is a concern with a Department of Corrections report indicating that in the past year, the departures of employees who had worked for less than a year were 108, and those who had worked between one and three years had was also 108, which was almost half of the new hires.

He pointed out that other states like Wisconsin and Kansas offer much better wages and benefits for the dangerous profession.

“Clearly we have to step up our game because the situation is dangerous and people are getting hurt.” McBroom said. “Officers are injured. The prisoners are injured. The situation is intolerable and must no longer be tolerated.”

McBroom went on to point out that the bill addresses the long-term need to retain employees, but does not address the immediate dangers of understaffed prison conditions and that more work is needed to effectively address prison crises.

Before McBroom spoke, Republican Sen. Thomas Albert of Michigan’s 18th District explained why he voted against the bill. Albert believed the crisis needed to be addressed, although he felt the bill was not the right solution. He pointed to the underfunding of current law enforcement pensions and the mismanagement of Michigan teacher pensions, and that the state owes about $40 billion in pension debt. His concern is that this will further burden Michigan taxpayers and that existing law enforcement pensions demonstrate failures in the system, with the state troopers’ retirement system being 66 percent funded with nearly 1.2 billion in unfunded liabilities . Albert also expressed concern about new hires not having the ability to choose whether they want to have a pension or a 401K plan.

Despite disagreements on how to go about addressing the crisis, all senators who spoke at the session agreed that the crisis must be addressed and how it will be addressed has passed the Senate.

McBroom reiterates, however, that much more work is needed to provide support and comfort to correctional officers, and that those who want to support them must be persistent.

“I would say to our correctional officers that they’re going to have to really fight harder now than they have even in the last few months because of the limited amount of time that the Legislature is going to be in session now,” he said. “For the rest of this year, we’re talking about six to 12 days of session, and getting it through the House, in the middle of all the other lame duck bills, and getting Heidi Washington (who has traditionally opposed it) to recommend that the Governor sign it. It will be a very tall order. So we have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks.”

McBroom said the best way to make sure the bill moves along and has the best chance of reaching the governor’s office is to put pressure on lawmakers and the governor by reaching out and expressing support for bill and voicing concerns that correctional officers and prisoners face in correctional facilities. due to lack of staff.

“It is not acceptable to see the state treating its state employees like this; it’s tearing families apart because the guys and gals are working 16- and 20-hour shifts and doing it multiple times a week and they don’t have time to be with their families at all.” McBroom said.

“They crawl home, get some sleep and eat and crawl back to work. It’s wrong and it’s not safe. Staff shortages prevent our citizens who are incarcerated from being able to access important programming. They need to access their important free time and other entitlements, and closed (understaffed) stations mean no yard access, no access to the weight room, no access to the library or classroom. All these are big problems, and the state must take them very seriously. So citizens need to convey to our government, “You have a staffing problem. You have a lack problem. Do something about it.”