UPPER PENINSULA, MI— The Michigan Corrections Organization is planning a series of informational pickets in the U.P. to bring attention to severe understaffing at the state’s prisons.
The group says the vacancy rate for corrections officers is 27 percent, which has created constant mandatory overtime and unsafe working conditions for employees.
Pickets are planned as follows:
Monday, August 19—A Chippewa/Kinross Correctional Facility picket will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. on M-80, across the road from the Chippewa Correctional Facility east entrance and Industrial Park Drive that leads to the Kinross Facility entrance.
Tuesday, August 20—A picket at the Baraga Correctional Facility will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the intersection of US-41 and Superior Avenue.
Wednesday, August 21—A Marquette Branch Prison picket will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. on US-41 across from the MBP entrance.
Michigan Corrections Organization President Byron Osborn says due to lack of adequate staffing, prisons are now at the point of desperation.
