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| Corrections officers "informational picketing" Muskegon Correctional Facility. |
| By mlive.com |
| Published: 07/08/2009 |
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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. Read more. |
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