Overworked employees mental health and retention issues all came up during today’s state Senate Oversight Committee hearing with the Michigan Department of Corrections.
It was a follow-up to one held three weeks ago where lawmakers heard testimony that the DOC had over 750-vacancies to fill.
Lawmakers again pressed the department about its hiring efforts.
"So, it is not simply a matter of us failing to recruit. We have recruited extremely aggressively. We’ve recruited extremely aggressively in a number of communities that have diminishing labor forces, which is a challenge in and of itself. And we’re going to continue with that." said Kyle Kaminski the department’s legislative liaison.
He says some retention ideas include modernizing corrections facilities and improving the department’s promotion structure.