Mackinac County commissioners approved hiring an additional corrections officer and the purchase of video equipment for the Mackinac County Jail at their Thursday, August 24, meeting. Hiring one full-time corrections officer and adding video equipment to monitor the holding cell from the jail's front office will satisfy the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) staffing requirements at the jail, said Sheriff Scott Strait.

Astaffing analysis had originally called for four additional corrections officers, and the compromise follows three months of negotiations with the DOC, including an August 15 meeting to review staffing levels, attended by DOC county jail services unit manager Jack Kann, Sheriff Strait, and county commissioners Larry Leveille and Jim Farero.

"I was satisfied with the meeting and I was satisfied with the outcome of it," said Mr. Leveille.

Salary for a beginning corrections officer is about $24,000 a year.

Corrections officers are responsible for the security of the jail, checking inmates every 30 minutes, conducting jail security checks, controlling fights, fingerprinting, supervising meals, booking inmates, keeping records, and transporting inmates to and from court and medical appointments.

Special services inside the jail, including church services and meetings such as Alcoholics Anonymous, also require a corrections officer escort. These meetings are considered a privilege, said Sheriff Strait.

"If they mess up, they don't get to do them," he said.

The purpose of offering the meetings is to give inmates the opportunity to change their behavior.

"We hope in the long run to help these people out so they don't have to come back," he said.

Sheriff Strait said he has begun the hiring process.

The new video equipment will include monitors stationed in the front office and will help reduce the need for even more staffing. Without the monitors, he said, the county would need two or three more officers.

The monitor project will cost $18,000, with half coming from a Risk Management grant and a Homeland Security grant.