Use Of Mandatory Overtime Prompts Concerns At Women's Prison

YPSILANTI (WWJ/AP) - The use of mandatory overtime amid a shortage of female corrections officers has prompted concerns at a women's prison near Ypsilanti.

Mandatory overtime has heightened stress at Huron Valley Correctional Facility and pushed some officers to quit, The Detroit Free Press reported.

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz says there are 35 vacant corrections officer positions at the prison, which is close to 10 percent below full staffing levels, but that is seen as an improvement from 46 vacancies a year ago.

Gautz says the department must use mandatory overtime to assure the prison is adequately staffed.

The state says it paid $5.2 million in custody overtime - not including holiday pay - at the prison in 2014-15, the most recent year for which data was available.

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