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| Corrections Department to lay off 100 |
| By detnews.com |
| Published: 04/14/2011 |
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Lansing- The Michigan Department of Corrections expects to lay off about 100 employees as a result of the planned closure of prisons in Coldwater and Muskegon, an official testified Thursday. "I think we're going to have more layoffs than we originally planned," said Barry Wickman, a departmental budget official. "There could easily be 100 layoffs." Wickman was testifying before a Senate appropriations budget subcommittee that on Thursday recommended at least $75 million in cuts to the corrections department in addition to cuts recommended earlier by Gov. Rick Snyder in his Feb. 17 budget presentation. But the anticipated layoffs Wickman discussed were based on the prison closures that are already planned in the next couple of months and were not based on any additional cuts recommended by the subcommittee chaired by Sen. John Proos, R-St. Joseph. "I'm a little surprised," by news of the layoffs, Proos said after the hearing. "The practice has been to have almost no layoffs." However, with fewer prisoners and facilities being closed, "it stands to reason," Proos said. Mel Grieshaber, executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization, the union representing just under 8,000 prison employees, said he's not sure the figure of 100 layoffs is realistic, though he does expect there will be some. "If people are not willing to move, then it could be," Grieshaber said. "If they are willing to move there are vacancies around the state," including 70 to 80 vacancies at prisons in the Jackson area, he said. The Florence Crane Correctional Facility in Coldwater and the Muskegon Correctional Facility are both expected to close soon. Crane was identified recently as the unspecified prison Snyder targeted for closure in his February budget message as a result of reduced prison numbers. Muskegon is closing because of the early termination of a contract under which it handled prisoners from Pennsylvania. Grieshaber said each facility has about 140 correctional officers and hundreds of other prison employees. The Department of Corrections has a budget of close to $2 billion and spends more general fund departments than any other state department. Read More. |
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