(screen whooshing) - Well, you may be coming in at the start of a shift where normally there would be 60 officers.

And today, you might only have 48, because they're just, we ran out of bodies.

There's nobody left to mandate, and we've got what we've got.

- [Jamie] Byron Osborn has spent more than 30 years working as an officer for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

While serving as the president for the Michigan Corrections Organization, the union representing roughly 6,000 employees across the state, he continues to work at Chippewa Correctional Facility in the eastern Upper Peninsula.

Osborn says the system is running on empty, a situation so dire that in July of 2024, the union requested that Governor Gretchen Whitmer deploy the National Guard to state prisons for support, a request (doors clanking) that was not enacted.

- We've been running anywhere from 800 to 1,000 corrections officers short here for close to a decade.

And we just can't get over the hump to decrease those vacancies.

And that, in turn, is leading to a snowball effect with resignations, people trying to find other lines of work because they can't maintain the pace of the mandatory overtime.

- [Jamie] Those mandates mean many are working multiple 16-hour shifts with constant risks to safety.

- State Rep Dave Prestin last year came on a tour of the Chippewa facility with me.

And while we were in one of the housing units, we had a small entourage of local administrators and stuff.

A prisoner came up, right up to the group we were all in and assaulted and punched out one of the administrators right in front of him.

So he got to see it firsthand.

The warden was standing there and everybody.

So boom, off we had to take the prisoner down, get him out in segregation, and continue our tour.

- [Jamie] In the past few months, St.

Louis Correctional Facility has reported a wave of assaults and disruptions, prompting Lansing lawmakers to hold hearings on how the department reports prison violence.

Robert Greenwood spent more than three decades in the profession and now teaches criminal justice at Madonna University in Livonia.

Greenwood was on the scene of a violent incident in August of 1995 at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility where seven officers were injured.

He says the staffing shortage is a safety issue for everyone involved.

- Inexperienced staff doesn't have a clue.

They don't have an idea and it's no fault of theirs.

They just don't have the time on the job.

It could turn really quickly, and next thing you know, that person could be assaulted, taken hostage or whatnot.

So it could go from escapes, from serious assaults, to hostage situations really fast.

- [Jamie] Greenwood says one of the keys to keeping the peace is the mental alertness of the staff.

- You might work two or three doubles in a row.

I don't know, you know, what person can function in that type of environment, especially in that type of environment, that you have to be on your A-game all the time, 100% of the time, or you could have or the, you know, repercussions can be deadly.

- [Jamie] But maintaining that A-game is exhausting in itself.

Even when an officer is physically present at home, they're often emotionally a world away.

- When you leave, you could think, "Oh I can do it on the drive home," or if you have another hobby or something.

But it's really hard to turn on and off again.

For instance, sitting down at the dinner table, you're supposed to be asking questions about your kids: "How'd your day go today?

How's class going?

How's sports activities?"

And then in the back of your mind, you're thinking about what happened that day or what you have potentially coming up the next shift.

- [Jamie] Melissa Perron recently announced she is running for state representative for Michigan's 107th District with the MDOC staffing issue as a key part of her platform.

Perron's husband is a corrections officer.

- He is there, but I feel so bad 'cause he's so exhausted.

So it's kind of like having a half parent (laughing) there.

You know what I mean?

Like he's there, but he's exhausted, both physically and, I mean, mentally.

And so it has kind of shifted that two-parent household down to like 1 1/2 on a good day.

My youngest is turning four, and she knows what the word mandate is and what it means and she'll talk about like, "How he's gonna be mandated again.

He's gonna not be home for dinner.

He's gonna miss out on blah blah blah blah blah," or, "We can't go to the beach because Dad's mandated again."

- The Michigan Department of Corrections is stepping up recruitment efforts.

From billboards to broadcast ads, the state has invested over $55 million in bonuses.

New recruits are now eligible to make $73,000 a year before overtime in about 3 1/2 years, along with additional health and dental benefits.

So what does it take to apply?

The department maintains a rigorous entry standard, including educational requirements, a structured interview and background check, and a 10-event physical fitness test and exam.

That's followed by training at an eight-week-long academy before they are assigned to a facility.

Despite the push, the most recent regional academy in the Upper Peninsula yielded just 19 new recruits to be spread across six different prisons.

We sat down with deputy director, Jeremy Bush, who's also a veteran corrections officer.

He's one of those in leadership tasked with filling hundreds of open positions.

- This is a nationwide issue in corrections.

It's corrections industry wide, but it's also an issue in public safety altogether.

And I think it was just exacerbated after COVID, where we've seen large numbers of people either retire or leave at a much faster rate.

- [Jamie] The department is also looking at long-term systemic overhauls.

The MDOC recently unveiled a brand new five-pillar plan: the Safe Prisons Initiative.

It targets everything from technology upgrades to refined prisoner classification.

As part of this initiative, the state is currently shifting resources to manage higher security populations.

Macomb Correctional Facility is adding roughly 190 level IV beds to allow for closer supervision.

Meanwhile, at Chippewa Correctional Facility, where staffing vacancies have been particularly difficult to fill, the department is temporarily closing a level II housing unit.

Officials say relocating these prisoners will reduce the need for mandatory overtime and improve well-being for the remaining officers.

- And what it will do is show more transparency and work on safety and security in our facilities.

People are depending on us.

We can't afford to let up on our recruitment efforts, and we need to be able to demonstrate to people that we're doing everything that we can to get the staff where they need to be.

- [Jamie] It's a strain being felt on both sides of the bars.

(door clanking) - Prisoners are commenting that, "Man, Officer Brown, you look, (laughing) you're not doing well today."

"Well no, I'm not.

This is my third double in a row."

So the entire atmosphere is just strained because the prisoners are under strain because some of their activities are not being covered and ran the way they should.

- [Jamie] Hakim Crampton is a prisoner rights advocate with the nonprofit Citizens for Prison Reform and says the staffing shortage is a concern for those behind bars and their families as well.

Saying in part, quote, "We believe the staffing crisis is partly borne out of low morality among Corrections employees.

We also believe the MDOC is not prioritizing those with the most need for programming and mental health treatment, which exacerbates a high stress work environment that is not safe for persons incarcerated and staff.

We represent families that have loved ones incarcerated in Michigan and they are concerned that the treatment needs of their loved ones are not being met and that the staffing crisis contributes to the lack of program needs being delivered."

Byron Osborn argues, without the return of a pension system, something the state moved away from in 1997, the department is fighting a losing battle.

- And we have people resigning in droves.

I mean, just in the last pay period, at my facility, we had two officers leave to go to truck driving school.

"I'm outta here, can't do it anymore, can't work these hours."

So the attrition is just, the further this staffing crisis goes, the larger the snowball gets of resignations.

Because every time two more resign, that's two more spots of mandatory overtime the next day.

We're just pleading with the State of Michigan and our elected officials to slam the brakes on that.

They've got to take action.

- [Jamie] While the department works internally, a separate battle is playing out in Lansing over a proposed hybrid pension program aimed at improving both officer recruitment and retention.

A bipartisan plan passed both the House and Senate at the end of 2024, but never reached Governor Whitmer's desk.

A dispute is now headed to the state's highest court.

On March 27, the Michigan Supreme Court officially fast-tracked the case, ordering oral arguments to begin this May to decide if those pension bills must be signed into law.

But until a final ruling is handed down, the daily strain on officers remains unchanged.

- Your officer positions are bleeding.

You do not even have the coverage that they need to feel safe.

So if there's more of us speaking out about it and being loud about it and rocking the boat, I'm hoping that it kind of kicks everybody in the pants to get them going, to find the solution.

- [Jamie] For veterans like Robert Greenwood, systemic success is measured by lives turned around and says the staffing issue should be something every Michigander is aware of.

- They should care because it might be their neighbors, their loved ones work in that type of facility, but more importantly, the Department of Corrections is there to rehabilitate prisoners and they go somewhere when they get paroled.

And that could be right next to where you're living.

Do you want somebody that's been rehabilitated, they've learned a good trade?

- [Jamie] As the search for solutions continues, short-staffed facilities prepare for the next shift.

- It bothers me.

I think about the sacrifices our staff make every single day.

These are real-life sacrifices that impact their facility, impact each staff person there, impacts their home life.

It bothers me that they're in that position they're in.

- [Jamie] The personal toll has become an operational reality.

The staff is exhausted and the system is running out of room to maneuver.

- It's pretty dire straits.