Bohnak hails pay hike for UP corrections recruits, calls it first step

A higher starting wage is now on the table for new corrections officers at five Upper Peninsula prisons, but state Rep. Karl Bohnak says the move will matter only if it starts to shrink the staffing holes that drive overtime, burnout and safety risks. The Michigan Department of Corrections raised the entry rate from $23.45 an hour to $28.24, a bump it says is worth about $10,000 a year for recruits.

The increase applies to Marquette Branch Prison, Baraga Correctional Facility, Alger Correctional Facility, Kinross Correctional Facility and Chippewa Correctional Facility. MDOC said those sites were designated hard-to-recruit areas under Civil Service Rules, which allowed the department to move ahead with the new starting pay. The department also said the class of 27 officers who graduated June 3 did not receive the higher wage because they were hired before the change took effect.

Bohnak called the move a huge win, but also said it is only the first step in a longer effort to address corrections staffing. He has pressed the issue for months, including help securing $32.1 million in last year’s state budget for corrections officer pay increases. In December, he toured prisons in Alger, Baraga and Marquette counties and said what he saw reinforced his view that prison staff are underpaid and under-supported.

The pay change grew out of a broader budget fight in Lansing. Senate-passed fiscal 2025-26 corrections budget documents included $17.3 million for a wage-scale restructure and another $15.1 million for a new top pay step after 54 months, along with a proposed 5% base-wage increase for all officer steps and faster movement to top pay by eliminating two steps. MDOC’s March 18, 2025 executive budget summary said the governor’s recommended budget would invest $32.4 million in targeted pay increases and speed up step increases.

The latest change also exposed a split over how far the raise should go. MDOC said the Michigan Corrections Organization declined on May 29 to support a letter of agreement that would have extended wage gains to current employees at the five prisons. The department said it will keep watching whether the new starting rate helps enough to broaden the policy to other hard-to-recruit facilities.

The stakes are high across the Upper Peninsula. Spring 2026 reporting said U.P. prisons hold about a quarter of Michigan’s inmates but account for nearly three-fourths of assaults on prison staff, and one report said about one in three positions at U.P. prisons is unfilled. MDOC said the pay move is part of its Safe Prisons Initiative, which is aimed at improving recruiting, cutting mandatory overtime, strengthening work-life balance and making the facilities safer. For Iron County, where prison staffing ripples through family incomes and the regional labor market, the question now is whether the higher starting wage will be enough to turn a chronic shortage into a stable career path.