Posted on 12/20/2011 2:10:02 PM PST by MichCapCon
There were 120 employees in the Michigan Department of Corrections who made more than $100,000 in 2010-2011, according to data obtained by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy through a Freedom of Information Act request.
One prison guard made $164,161. A registered nurse made $160,875. That's more than the highest-paid senior administrator, an executive warden who made $140,342.
The list of employees didn’t include names and took several attempts and four months to get the information from the state. There were 16,807 people on the Department of Corrections’ payroll.
Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said since names were not released it was “nearly impossible” to tell if the employees’ salaries were because of overtime or if the employees retired and were compensated for unused leave time.
Eight corrections officers made $100,000 or more in 2010-11. The highest paid was $130,234.
Two registered nurses made six figures. Besides the one who made $160,875, another nurse made $108,624...
(Excerpt) Read more at michigancapitolconfidential.com ...
Double shifts and Overtime are investments by the employee.
Do that here in California and it would (sadly) make Michigan look insignificant by comparison.
The union goons rule here.
Yes, but he was required to carry two inmates at a time on his back, while escorting them to the game room. Not to mention the fact he had to hear an occasional bad word.
In Wisconsin, the prison guards arrange to have themselves scheduled for two consecutive 8-hour shifts, call in “sick” for the first, and then show up miraculously-healed eight hours later for the second shift.
Then, since it’s their “second scheduled shift”, they get paid double-time for it.
Jenny Granholm imported inmates for the sole purpose of keeping union guards employed.
From what I read, they don’t include rank. If you have majors and captains that have been there 30yrs, this isn’t surprising.
Here in Virginia, the state has kept some prisons open by jailing inmates from other states, under contract. Last week, Pennsylvania (one of Old Dominion’s biggest customers) announced it was ending the contract, and bring prisoners back to PA for the remainder of their sentences. The next day Governor McDonnell announced that the facility where the PA prisoners were housed would be closed by May. Some of the staff will move to other prisons; others will get the boot. I’m guessing what McDonnell did in VA would be impossible in Michigan or California, where the prison guards unions are some of the most important powerbrokers in those states.
On the part of the prison guards one has to take into account court-ordered, mandatory staffing levels as a factor in those overtime figures. In California this same topic stirred up a ruckus and then faded away as it was found that some of those ‘overpaid’ guards at certain prisons could not even quit their jobs without approval from California’s unelected prison ‘czar’ J. Clark Kelso.
Granholm did close some prisons but from what I understand, they were primarily in districts that were GOP held at the time. I don’t doubt that many of the guards transferred to the prisons that remained open.
I would guess that is a lot of overtime...probably minimum staffing levels mandated for safety reasons....and i am also guessing that if someone in the private sector busted their ass in overtime...and pull in that kinda salary...they would be applauded. Awful lot of criticism of people doing a job 99% of the population wouldnt do...
I don't want to be a prison guard. For those who do a good job and put in long hours, I have no problem if they make more than a Professor.
Creating work for otherwise unneeded taxpayer funded jobs isn’t making a profit. Its funding a specific voter base.
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