As of January 1, 2025,  Correctional Officers are Federally Recognized as Public Safety Employees   the same as Police and Fire.  This has implications for disability, taxes and retirement. As we face new challenges to our pension in 2025 this will further the distinction between PERA General Plan members like 911 Dispatch and Probation and CO's in the PERA Correctional Plan. It's part  of the Secure Act 2.0. 26 USC § 72(t)()(10)  definition of Public Safety Employee - qualified public safety employee (10) Distributions to qualified public safety employees and private sector firefighters (A) In general In the case of a distribution to a qualified public safety employee from a governmental plan (within the meaning of section 414(d) ) or a distribution from a plan described in clause (iii), (iv), or (vi) of section 402(c)(8)(B) to an employee who provides firefighting services, paragraph (2)(A)(v) shall be applied by substituting “age 50 or 25 years of service u...

The Detention Home Blog is a Detention Deputy/CO news blog that's been around since 2006. It covers a range of news, contract issues and pension issues. It's a good source of Corrections News you may be interested in. The latest post lists several corrections related headlines you may find informative, especially to our members who are still working. https://detentionhome.blogspot.com/2024/12/corrections-headlines-in-news.html

The Correctional Officer position is an inherently dangerous profession, even deadly. This past week two CO's lost their lives at the hands of an inmate. On December 18th it was reported that Isiah Patrick Bias was bludgeoned to death by an inmate with a hammer in Texas. Today it was reported that CO Andrew Lansing was killed by an inmate at the Ross Correctional Institution in Ohio ON CHRISTMAS DAY! Assaults are all to common and sometimes they lead to death. This is why MNCORA fights so hard to protect our disability and Survivor benefits. Our heart goes out to these Correctional Officers and their families who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The U.S. House and Senate passed a bill that  will affect many Corrections Officers in Minnesota. For decades Public Employees who worked jobs that didn't pay into Social Security, even if they had worked jobs that paid in were either unable to collect or collected at a greatly reduced rate, This law corrects that. Not all PERA Correctional Plan members paid Social Security. When Minnesota began the PERA Correctional Plan in 1999 each group was able to vote to continue paying into Social Security or not to. This was not an individual choice, but a group vote. There are a few of the Detention Deputy groups in Minnesota that opted out.  This change in law will allow them to collect for the years they paid in, providing they had paid enough quarters in. On a side bar, those 911 dispatchers that attempted to get into our pension would have been in for a rude awakening (if they succeeded) if they were in a County that opted out. Not being in also eliminates eligibility for Social ...

The MNCORA Executive Board met on December 17th. After PERA's planning meeting one of their objections to adding a CO seat to the board was it would make the board an even number. At the December 12 meeting PERA voted not to support another seat. MNCORA was going to pivot and ask for an additional Retiree seat to solve their dilemma.  Then we discovered the largest state pension plan TRA , the teachers retirement, only has a 10 member board!  After much discussion the MNCORA executive board decided to go back to our original plan to just add a CO seat to the PERA board. This session the legislature seems to be in flux with the elimination of the Democratic trifecta and them having to work out power sharing. MNCORA believes it will be easier to get one seat then trying to add two. Last session Pension Commission Chair Representative Her did not allow our Bill a hearing in the Pension Commission, this year there will be new leadership.  MNCORA again points out the state CO...

  On December 12, 2024 the PERA Executive Board voted unanimously not to  support legislation to add a Correctional Officer seat to the PERA Board. This is disappointing but will not dissuade MNCORA from again seeking a Bill with the Legislature. I would like to counter some of the PERA Boards arguments. At the planning meeting and in PERA's letter they argued that adding a seat would make the number on the Board even. So, we revised our proposal to add an additional Retiree seat. After all retirees are almost 30% of PERA membership and Retirees have only one member elected seat. In their letter they state, “ The current makeup of the board is 6 member positions to 3 employer positions, adding additional board members representing member groups would weigh the board’s makeup further towards the membership .” Not exactly true. It’s an 11 person board. Source PERA 2023 PFAR The 11 person Board is made up of 5 seats that are appointed by the Governor and one more is th...