correctional officer

registered nurse

production lead

Michigan Department of Corrections

Working in Corrections is very interesting, you will see thing inside a correctional facility that you may have never seen before in regards to behavior and possible acts of negative behavior. You will see that all walks of life come to prison meaning, the very old, the young, very intelligent, the not so intelligent, mentally ill, those with medical issues, foreigners, drug and alcohol abusers, extremely violent, and all races.  My best piece of advice for anyone considering coming into the department of corrections is to remember that regardless of the crime and whether you like it or not, these are fellow human beings and they are not there for your judgment or for your personal punishment they’ve already been judged by a jury of their peers. Prison is the punishment with their having been removed from society based upon the legal determination. The Michigan Department of Corrections runs a very good academy. It was very academically inclined and they do their best to teach you about possible scenarios within the institutions but it’s hard to do because each situation and institution run differently based on the level of security you work in, such as Level 5, 4, 2 or 1. I am extremely fortunate to have a good chain of command and all of my upper management of the institution have been front line officers and understand what we face. 

1. The downers of the job can be the mandatory overtime for a possible total of 16 hours, now the money is good, but if you live a long way the drive home can be long and tiring in and of itself.
2. Sometimes you get inmates that simply have no coping skills or refuse to comply and you have to be a little more creative with your communication. You will have to learn to say the word NO and like children, you will have to say it often.
3. You will meet some master manipulators and you will identify them quickly, they always have an angle like a salesman. Learn early that there is no room for negotiations in the operation procedures.
4. Your family life can take a hit on holidays and weekends, it’s just how it is when you’re starting out, if you can’t take the no weekends thing, then this may be a problem for you.
5. Understand that this job is for the State of Michigan. Having said that it does involve politics and it’s out of your control. Sometime the politicians and lawyers in Lansing will make changes for all the institutions that seemingly make no sense. Sometimes the people making the changes have never even been to a prison and don’t see or understand how it affects your daily job duties. Let it go, do your job to the best of your ability and understand that as long as you do that....there isn’t anything to worry about.

Having worked in a Super Max for another State, finished a military career and seen staff and prisoners come and go, it simply requires you to be flexible, adapt and overcome. Document in your logbooks pertinent information and incidents, learn that communication, observation and integrity are key. Don’t falsify anything.....if you’re not sure, don’t put it in writing. Discretion is the better part of valor!

If you join us, know that you cannot change people, you change how you respond and within every difficulty lies and opportunity...no matter how small.

I am afraid of management, not the inmates. Power hungry wardens and a director that loves to make employees fear for their jobs daily.  Grown men crying in fear of providing for their families, shaking, heart attacks, and wonderful seasoned employees forced to quit for their mental health. Common sense and talking to your employees first has stopped.
I used to like my job but 10 years ago everything went downhill.   Management pushing as many stupid disciplines and in some cases I do believe entrapment. Threaten everyone that they need to tell on each other or both will get disciplined.  I know of many times that management was told "your facility is only as good as your employees".  The biggest resource is the staff but MDOC overworks the staff and wastes much time to catch employees,  while expecting excellence with too much work.  Example is one employee
bought a sandwich behind the gates, pockets the mustard, seen on camera buying the sandwich, goes out 2 gates for a minute, returns with unopened  mustard packet still in their pocket and is disciplined for contraband that he just purchased behind the gates. Yes, all should check pockets before entering, but when you know what it is, is it worth a 50.page discipline and 4 people meeting and a suspension and Lansing taking time to review it?  Another employee realized she had several pens that she wanted to return and was disciplined for going IN the gates to RETURN  state pens - only 2 pens allowed thru gate at one time.  I wanted to work there longer but could not watch the cruel treatment of employees.  The one that has moved up quickly has already bragged that he has a promotion that hasn't even been posted yet.  SO he obviously knows it is his before he and several others apply and interview.  So again, wasting time of the other applicants and an interview panel when director has already picked him for the job.  They go through the process so it looks fair, but it wasn"t.  I so wish I could talk to Governor Whitmer in person, but then my life may be threatened.

Working with convicts can be overwhelming. Its an impossible environment. Found out at Spectrum Health they get a lot of Corrections people with heart attacks at young ages. The most enjoyable is the hours. Put in your 8 and hit the gate. No overtime. Do not sign up for this program called VPP acronym for Violence Prevention Program. The training is grueling. Its 80 hours long. Trainees sit from 8am to 5pm with minimal breaks in chairs. 5 instructors tag team teach with over 5000 pages on information. They rotate out instructors every other day. But you as a student sit there and do not move. You have to do 3 presentations. If they don't like what a student did, they fail them and go back for yet another 80 hours unbearable mind numbing boredom. I seen people fighting back tears after 3 days sitting in their chairs. So stressful that people were running out of class to the bathrooms with diarrhea. Some get up suddenly with cramps. Believe me the Michigan Department of Corrections will make it so tough that people just up and leave. The next is the stench of inmates on a daily basis. The body odors are unbearable and nauseating. They post jobs all the time on NEOGOV employee turnover is extremely high. My advice stay away. Do not apply. Convicts can abuse staff and not much happens - the system is broken. It coddles inmates but tears up staff. Stay away from DHS jobs. Caseworkers get 500 or more cases-then get fired for incompetence. They take their work home at night and on weekends. Parole officers get 80 or more cases - same thing. 100 hours a week with only 40 hours pay. With 300 applicants per opening - they can hire and fire with impunity.

Parole/Probation Agent. There is no such thing as a typical day as an Agent. Whatever you have planned can and usually does change throughout the day. You have to be absolutely meticulous and detail oriented as you're dealing with individuals who have committed serious crimes and are dangerous. I've learned so much about the criminal justice system throughout the years and I continue to learn every day. Management is hit or miss. I've had amazing supervisors and then I've had supervisors where you wonder how they dress themselves every day. The workplace culture varies significantly from office to office. However, most colleagues have been supportive. The hardest part of the job is trying to stay organized in a system that is the complete opposite. You face dangerous situations regularly. A majority of the time you're seeing people at their worst while trying to motivate them to positively change. The hardest part of the job is working in a climate where those of us in law enforcement are chastised. Knowing what the general public does not know is tough. Knowing that someone has been given numerous chances and then finally they're sent back to prison and then you're the bad guy is hard. That being said, there are several success stories and amazing changes in people throughout the years. Those are the folks that keep you going. This is a fantastic career if you're able to compartmentalize work and your home life by drawing a line in the sand. 

Depending on your job, a typical day at work could be a 12-8 hour shift, with little or no time for breaks. Working with the inmates themselves is probably the best part about the job, and not as "scary" as others would believe.
The worst part about the job is working with management and fellow employees, who all seem to be emotionally dysregulated at most times. Management seems to always have their eye out for employees doing something, "wrong," and as a whole the department of corrections complains about retention of employees, however, actively seeks to reprimand its staff, puts them in unfair working conditions, and seeks to fire them when they can.
The department of corrections continually shoots itself in the foot by being worried only about its political face, and what it portrays to the public, as opposed to actually giving back to employees and the clients they serve.
Truly I'd say the only benefits to this job are the health care and paid time off, but that's even if you last long enough to see that time add up, if you don't get assaulted or fired first.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There is sadly to say always a need for corrections in our society and strong men and women are always needed to help protect society from some of its own citizens ! I have a great respect for those who take on the mantle of being their brothers keeper !
   My job with the MDOC was Lead Custodian, and it was a good career, the other employees worked together to make sure we all went home safely every day !
   The pay was good and the work was neither strenuous or hard !
   I highly recommend those who are looking to make a living to support your family, the MDOC is a good choice ! There are avanues for advancement if you are of a certain mind and your fellow coworkers are good people !

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part for me was emergency counts and training drills, but thats because I had floors to be done on a schedule and a warden who expected things to be both clean and Shiny !

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Everyone worked as a team,  there was no sitting on the sidelines, everyone did their share !

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Setting up the supplies, handing out details to the porters and making sure everyones job got done and everyone was paid !

I was a prisoner at Parnall Correctional Facility from 2011 to 2019.  I helped fellow prisoners with their legal work through the MDOC's Legal Writer program.  This program is supervised by an outside law firm who is contracted by the MDOC to do so.

I loved my job and felt like I was really contributing to society and to my fellow prisoners.

I had good staff to work with (librarian) and was treated with respect and dignity (much UNLIKE other jobs at the facility).

The part of the job I most liked was meeting the people and finding out what I could do to help them.

The hardest part of the job was having to deal with the limitations of my position and not being able to help people when they really needed the help.

I learned that most public defenders DON'T spend enough time explaining the legal process to their clients and many of them (who became my client) were so confused by what had happened during their trial and/or plea and sentencing.  I often helped the person just by explaining what had happened based upon the paperwork they had to show me.  I hope, in the future to change this by talking to public defenders and having them do a better job.

The first 2 weeks,I left at the end of the day, I would be in tears before I got to my car. It got a bit better after that. I transferred to a different facility after 6 years. Within the first 48 hours, I knew that was a 






.Eventually, it got so bad,I slept with a loaded gun next to my alarm,. I knew that one day,I just wasn't going to be able to deal with it anymore. In my 11 years with MDOC,I have personally known & worked with 13 officers who committed suicide. I don't think that I know more than 5 who aren't alcoholica or drug addicted. The divorce rate is ASTRONOMICAL. Quite a few related to substance abuse, but many more are because of marital infidelity. I'm one of the very few who got out of there without a drug problem,without marital infidelity. I worked 4 years at a dacility that gave us (RNs) an annual $5k bonus. mistake

Not a bad place to work if you can leave work at work and don't worry about anything but staying out of trouble and collecting a check. Not a good one either though.  The management is not very good at what they do and most of them don't know anything about working with criminals in a potentially confrontation environment. You will be expect to enforce rules say no to inmates but management will give in to the inmates whenever it is inconvenient not to.  Whenever supervision or management screws up, which is quite often, officers will be blamed.  You will never go home feeling like you made a difference or with a since of pride for what you did that day.  Basically officers babysit adults who stopped maturing when they were in middle school and get very little support from the top. And the retirement benefits suck.  You get a 401 and a 457 but no pension and no healthcare after you leave the department. On the bright side it is very hard to get fired and there is a lot of money to be made in overtime.  So I would say its an okay job, terrible career.  

You never know what you are walking into. Very Diverse set of folks. Staff and Prisoners.

I learned to smile and respect people. I also learned that with that many personalities, you stick to your style of working. This creates balance. Respect is the most important. Keep busy, don't get too personal with anyone. It's a negative environment, and can explode at anytime.

I expect managers to be managers. Again, a negative environment. Folk's get burnt out. In a Prison, being in charge is not always the most popular place to be. Complicated.

I expect folks to do their job. Again, In a prison, folks get burnt out. It absolutely changes people. The best thing to do is do your 8 hit the gate. Some of us became wiser with experience. We didn't let it get to us. It's Complicated.

Having been spit on and feces thrown at me or one of my co-workers.

Actually being able to help prisoners to choose more healthy lifestyle changes. Security Threat Group Coordinator. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Worked with some remarkable folks.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Correctional officer 3 salaries reported	$23.85 per hour
Registered nurse 10 salaries reported	$33.46 per hour
Production lead 1 salary reported	$29.35 per hour

Working at Michigan Department of Corrections: Company Overview and Reviews

Michigan Department of Corrections

Michigan Department of Corrections Ratings

Popular jobs at Michigan Department of Corrections

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected