Fewer than 500 prison layoffs expected

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan's top corrections official said Tuesday she expects fewer than 500 employees to be laid off as a result of the state closing three prisons and five prison camps later this year.

Department of Corrections Director Patricia Caruso told lawmakers she decided to close some facilities even if perhaps others may have been targeted first by the "bean counters."

For example, she did not close Ojibway Correctional Facility in the western Upper Peninsula because she said it is not near other prisons, meaning its employees would less likely to be able to fill positions elsewhere.

"We would devastate that community and put the majority of people on the unemployment rolls," Caruso said.

She said prisons to be closed generally are within the vicinity of prisons that are staying open, allowing some employees to fill vacant jobs. The closings announced Friday are designed to save $120 million as cash-strapped Michigan hopes to incarcerate its lowest number of inmates in a decade.

The closings will directly affect about 1,000 employees. Layoffs also will affect employees at prisons staying open, though, because labor contracts allow workers with more experience to keep their jobs and "bump" lower-seniority workers.

Caruso also defended against criticism that lowering the prison population by paroling more inmates is dangerous in a poor economy.

"We don't keep people incarcerated because they don't have a job," she told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Judiciary & Corrections.

Caruso said Michigan has more than 21,000 parolees, the highest ever. But those parolees are committing fewer violations than when the state had 15,000 or 16,000 parolees, she said.

Caruso said she hopes a prison to be closed such as Standish Maximum Correctional Facility north of Bay City will be "marketable" as the state checks with other states about their interest in renting some of Michigan's excess prison beds.

Republican legislators expressed concern that the state will not save money despite closing the prisons, even though it should be much cheaper to monitor criminals on parole or probation. Corrections officials said they need more money this year for extra parole agents and GPS tethers to monitor inmates being released from prison.