By Nathan Clark
mlive.com
LANSING, Mich. — A trio of bills aimed at helping to solve Michigan’s prison staffing crisis were passed in the final hours of 2024 but have been held in legal limbo ever since.
The bills, HB 4665, HB 4666 and HB 4667, passed both the state house and senate Dec. 13 at the tail end of the legislator’s lame duck session but, as of July 1, the bills have not been given to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for signing or vetoing.
If approved by the governor, the bills would add correctional officers to the Michigan State Police retirement plan, a hybrid pension plan.
In May, more than 100 correctional officers gathered outside the state capital to protest the stalling of the bills.
“The hope is with a pension in place, MDOC can attract more officers and keep the one it has,” Michigan Corrections Organization President Byron Osborn said. “There is little incentive for officers to stay right now.”
Michigan’s prison system has been in a perpetual staffing crisis for years as the state has been struggling to bring in and keep its correctional officers working in its prisons.
With these staffing shortages it means there are fewer officers available to keep order in the prison and make sure all the prisoners peacefully serve their sentences.
Those officers MDOC can retain regularly work mandatory overtime to cover staffing gaps, sometimes working 16-hour days back-to-back.
“The department continues to work on strategies to reduce mandatory overtime, increase retention and further our recruiting efforts,” MDOC Public Information Officer Jenni Riehle said. “Since September, MDOC has hired over 550 new officers who will be placed at facilities across the state.”
The state Senate filed a lawsuit Feb. 3 against the House in the Michigan Court of Claims demanding Speaker of the House Matt Hall, R- Richland Township, present the passed bills, along with six others, to the governor.
“Though the bills were passed before he became speaker, he still has the power to present the bills to the governor but for whatever reason he is choosing not to,” State Senator Sue Shink, D- Northfield Township, said.
The lawsuit argued the House was violating the Michigan Constitution by withholding the bills.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima G. Patel ruled on the case, Feb. 27, stating the bills passed by the legislature must be presented to the governor at least 14 days before the legislation could take effect, but did not assign a specific date.
Since taking power in January, House Republicans have withheld the bills, and six others, for a legal review. House Republicans have not disclosed to MLive the specific reasons for this review.
The state House passed a resolution March 12 directing the House clerk to present only bills passed this session to the governor.
The resolution argues that the House is not obliged to present bills passed last session, when Democrats held the majority in the chamber.
“Our legal review did identify some uncertainties that have created confusion and ambiguities after the recent court ruling,” Hall said. “We obviously won the court case, but the House has taken the position that there is value in clarifying those questions for the sake of future precedent and to give the public a unified position. That’s why we will be going to the Court of Appeals to get everyone on the same page.”
The case within the Court of Appeals is still on going.
Correctional officers currently have a tax deferred 401k plan that employees pay into and the state matches. It’s a standard 401k that employees take with them when they leave.
The MSP plan is a hybrid system that operates with both a tax deferred 401k as well as guaranteed lifetime pension only available if retiring while still in the program.
The defined benefit pension plan correctional officers were enrolled in was closed in 1997, ending the guaranteed pension for new hires.
According to the three bills, correctional officers will have the option to join the MSP retirement program and purchase credit with their old retirement funds, making its implementation retroactive in a way.
Officers can choose not to join as well, but all new hires after June 7, 2025, would be automatically added to the MSP pension program.
According to a financial audit of the bills potential implementation, if every correctional officer currently employed opted into the program it would result in an annual cost increase to the state of between $20 million and $37.8 million.
“I feel like (a pension program) will keep officers more because they’ll see there’s like a light at the end of the tunnel and there’ll be benefits once they do their 20 plus years,” said Terina Williams, a correctional officer for the state.
Providing a guaranteed pension may be the only feasible way to encourage correctional officers to stay, given the unique position of how prisons operate.
“Typically, if a business is unable to fill open jobs the business will either reduce production, take on less contracts or offer higher wages to attract more workers,” said University of Michigan emeritus professor of economics Charles Brown. “With MDOC’s situation, it is not a business so those solutions are significantly limited as it cannot request to have less prisoners or only have prisoners for part of the day, leaving only monetary incentives to attract new hires and keep them.”
Though not ideal, voluntary overtime is a typical stop gap for handing staffing shortages while mandatory overtime makes a job less attractive to the people who don’t really want to work the extra hours and they’re more likely to find other jobs, Brown said.
With a defined benefit pension plan in place, retaining officers would likely be improved and staffing shortages can be predicted ahead of time as officers will likely leave soon after hitting their retirement cap, Brown said.
“With 20 years to early retirement, nobody’s going to leave after 18 years, but a lot of people are going to file the day they reach 20 years,” he said. “Not anticipating people leaving after 20 years if that’s the early retirement mark would just be a failure on HR’s part.”
Another piece of legislation, House Bill 5912 was introduced Aug. 15 and would have removed the prerequisite college credit requirement for new officer recruits, widening the possible pool of candidates and bringing officers relief.
The bill failed to pass, dying in the lame duck session at the end of 2024.
MDOC is working with lawmakers to reintroduce the legislation, Riehle said.
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