Subcommittee hears overview of $2.1 billion corrections budget; staffing, health care drive costs

Robin Risco, fiscal analyst for the House Fiscal Agency, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections and Judiciary that the Department of Corrections (MDOC) fiscal year 2025 budget totals about $2.1 billion and is mostly financed by the state general fund.

Risco said the corrections budget represents roughly 14% of the state’s general fund-general purpose budget and about 3% of the state’s adjusted gross budget. “The budget is 1 of the bigger budgets,” she said, noting that about 98% of MDOC personnel costs are financed with general fund revenue.

The presentation highlighted three primary drivers of recent budget growth: employee costs, programming, and physical and mental health care for prisoners. Risco told the committee the department received roughly $1.8 billion in federal COVID-relief funding across years that was used for hazard pay, personal protective equipment, testing and later to offset payroll costs for frontline workers; restoring those federal dollars contributed to increases in general-fund appropriations in subsequent years.

Risco said total appropriations rose by about $86.6 million in the five-year comparison she presented, with fluctuations tied to facility closures and one-time funding shifts. She noted closures — including the Michigan Reformatory and the south side…