September 4, 2024 – Cooper Street Correctional Facility – KYI Special Edition Crisis Report

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The Corrections Officers working at the Cooper Street Correctional Facility, a secure level I facility, are suffering badly from the impacts of a severe staffing crisis. The vacancy rate for officers is now up to a dangerous 31.6%. This results in constant mandatory 16-hour shifts and violations of the Department’s overtime rules. Officers are forced to work double shifts multiple times per week and frequently on back-to-back days with no relief in sight. Every day, the prison runs with far less officers than is required, resulting in prisoner activities being limited or canceled. This in turn can lead to disturbances and assaults on the officers when prisoners get frustrated.

It is time for the public and our elected officials to be made aware of what is really happening in Michigan’s state prison system. This series of reports will pull back the curtain for everyone to have a glimpse of what it’s like to work in short-staffed prisons.

From August 1 through August 31, 2024, there were 822 corrections officer overtime shifts. 472 of those overtime shifts were mandatory overtime, and most of the rest worked voluntarily overtime to avoid mandatory overtime. There were 148 violations of the MDOC’s 32-hour rule, which is a policy designed to protect officers from excessive overtime. During this time there were also 144 “closed” officer positions across all three shifts per day. A closed officer position means that there wasn’t an officer stationed at a required position inside the prison.

The following is a summary of events just from July 1 through July 31, 2024, that corrections officers at this prison dealt with:

7/2/2024 – Officers broke up 2 prisoners fighting on the yard.
7/2/2024 – Officers broke up 3 prisoners fighting in C-Unit.
7/3/2024 – An officer found illegal drugs on a prisoner during a strip search.
7/3/2024 – An officer found a weapon in K-Unit during a shakedown.
7/4/2024 – Officers broke up 2 prisoners fighting in D unit.
7/5/2024 – An officer found illegal drugs on a prisoner.
7/6/2024 – An officer found illegal drugs on a prisoner.
7/9/2024 – An officer saw a prisoner swallowing illegal drugs.
7/12/2024 – An officer found a weapon on a prisoner.
7/12/2024 – A prisoner assaulted an officer.
7/15/2024 – Officers responded to a prisoner assaulting another prisoner in H-unit.
7/16/2024 – Illegal drugs were found on book pages of incoming mail in the mailroom.
7/16/2024 – Officers broke up 2 prisoners fighting in H-unit.
7/23/2024 – Officers broke up 3 prisoners fighting in SAI.
7/27/2024 – Officers responded to a drug overdose in K-unit.
7/28/2024 – An officer found a weapon in the F-unit common area.
7/29/2024 – Officers found illegal drugs on a prisoner.

https://www.mco-seiu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/KYI-Special-Edition-9.4.24-JCS.pdf