No pension for prison guards. Shameful!

As guest speaker for a senior citizens seminar on a college campus I was invited to explain the work of HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS. 

I make extensive use of anecdotes in my public presentations about this work. Facts and figures may be impressive to a few people, but stories about the lives of fellow human beings are far more attention-getting. 

In that the HFP staff helps men and women with many issues and problems they face living in Michigan’s 27 correctional facilities you can well imagine that many of my stories have a negative flavor. Before concluding my speech, I had some unpleasant things to say about prison guards and their mistreatment of inmates. At the conclusion of my presentation a very nice elderly woman politely raised her hand. “I have a son who is a corrections officer,” she had. “He has a college degree, he does his job well, and he loves his work!” That was an important reminder for me: All the apples in the bushel are not rotten! 

That little story serves as a prelude for this essay. I have been quick to criticize the actions of some prison guards. But, I find it necessary and important to support them when they are the ones being mistreated. And that is now the case. 

Ray Sholtz, Executive Director of the Michigan Corrections Organization recently wrote an op-ed piece in the Detroit News that caught my attention. The union leader pointed out that thanks to rare and unusual bipartisan support the state legislature approved a series of bills for the creation of pensions for corrections officers. Unfortunately, the approved bills never got to the Governor’s desk! 

According to Sholtz the blame also lies on both sides of the aisle. He reports that from December 2024 to January 2025, when Joe Tate was the Democratic Speaker of the House, he never got around to directing his clerk to deliver those bills to the governor for signature. Then, in January, Republican Matt Hall took over as Speaker of the House, and ditto! The bills didn’t get to the guv! The union has now taken this shameful delay to the Michigan Appeals Court. 

Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Corrections continues to struggle along with a significant shortage of corrections officers…some facilities reporting vacancy rates exceeding 30%! The MDOC will be the first to tell you that this understaffing leads to dangerous working conditions, including mandatory overtime, unsafe prisoner-to-officer ratios, and lax prisoner discipline policies. And, that’s saying nothing about morale. Just imagine trying to hire men and women for this important position in our prisons, but having to explain that, even though employed by the state, they’ll get no pension. 

The union, and the men and women it represents, have every right to demand better. 

Says Sholtz: “Our officers don’t have the option to pick and choose which policies to follow. Neither should our elected leaders. We elect these leaders to make our communities better. If they aren’t going to uphold their end of the bargain, it’s time to find leaders who can.” 

Yep!

Do you know who your state legislators are? Share your opinions.