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July 09, 2009
MI/CA: Guards hope for prisoners from CA
He's blunter about Michigan's plan to release thousands of inmates earlier than would once have been the case. "Lock your door and load your guns -- you're going to need it," Tylutki said.
Corrections officers conducted "informational picketing" Tuesday outside the soon-to-close Muskegon Correctional Facility.
by John S. Hausman|Muskegon Chronicle
Wednesday July 08, 2009, 8:23 AM
MUSKEGON -- For Phil Olson, it's a foregone conclusion: His prison job is doomed.
With one year on the job, the corrections officer has nowhere near enough seniority to keep it when Muskegon Correctional Facility closes Oct. 1.
"I left a good job to come here a year ago. I came here for the security, and now they're closing the doors," the 34-year-old Olson said. "And the state didn't see this coming a year ago when they hired 500 of us (statewide)?"
Olson was one of a group of "informational picketers" Tuesday outside the prison at 2400 Sheridan.
The goal of the picketing, organized by the Michigan Corrections Organization, was to "educate the public" about what that union calls a danger to public safety: the state's decision to parole up to 4,000 inmates after their minimum sentence is served -- sooner than would previously have been the case -- thus allowing it to close MCF and other prisons.
The state has said up to two-thirds of the 250 jobs at the Muskegon prison could be lost. More than 150 of the prison's employees are corrections officers. The exact number of layoffs won't be known until close to the closing date.
Corrections officers at MCF with more seniority will be allowed to "bump" into the jobs of less-senior officers now working at Muskegon's two other state prisons, Earnest C. Brooks and West Shoreline correctional facilities.
The picketing seemed mostly a chance to vent and solicit supportive honks from passing cars. None of the picketers interviewed held any real hope that public pressure would change state officials' minds about the early releases and consequent prison closings.
But many were more optimistic about a new state initiative to try to persuade California officials to begin housing overflow inmates at vacant Michigan prisons, possibly including MCF. California corrections officials are planning to tour the Muskegon facility next week.
If a California deal were to happen, it could save a substantial number of the jobs otherwise to be lost, though probably not all of them.
"I think it's a good plan to keep the officers working," said state union President Tom Tylutki, who was with the Muskegon picketers.
He's blunter about Michigan's plan to release thousands of inmates earlier than would once have been the case. "Lock your door and load your guns --Â you're going to need it," Tylutki said.
State corrections spokesman Russ Marlan, contacted by phone, disputes the union's position that the earlier releases and prison closings endanger public safety, and denies that saving money is the motive.
The prison plan is based on a study released earlier this year by the Council of State Governments on Michigan's prison system, Marlan said. That study advocated using fewer public-safety resources for long-term maintenance of prisoners, and more for police, prosecutors and crime prevention, as a better way to protect public safety.
"The side effect is that prisons are going to close, and people are going to lose their jobs," Marlan said. "So I can understand them saying this is not the way to go. It's very emotional."
http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2009/07/corrections_officers_co
nducted.html
Posted by lois at July 9, 2009 09:14 PM