Sarah Atwood
The Detroit News
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Corrections will raise starting salaries for Corrections officers working in the Upper Peninsula, the department said.
The department said difficulty in recruiting and retaining officers for Michigan’s northernmost prisons prompted the salary increases. Starting hourly pay for new recruits will rise from $23.45 to $28.24, a yearly increase of about $10,000, according to the department. The new starting rate matches what was typical for officers who’d worked for two years.
The increased starting pay announced Friday will affect officers at five of the six U.P. prisons: Marquette Branch Prison and Baraga Correctional, Alger Correctional, Kinross Correctional and Chippewa Correctional facilities. The prisons were chosen based on staff vacancy rates and are located in “hard to recruit” areas of the state.
The pay hike is part of the Safe Prisons Initiative that was launched in March, said the press release issued Friday. The program aims to improve safety and security in prisons through “upgrading prisoner programming, implementing tech improvements and utilizing new tactics to improve employee recruitment and retention.”
“This increase provides a strong incentive for men and women in the U.P. to join our department’s mission and we look forward to welcoming them as part of the MDOC team,” said Jeremy Bush, deputy director of the state’s Correctional Facilities Administration, in a statement attached to the press release. “We know these facilities need the additional support and we are excited to see qualified local community members step up and heed the call.”
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