By Nathan Clark
mlive.com
ST. LOUIS, Mich. — A shortage of beds for violent prisoners who should be at high-security correctional facilities recently led to a spike in violence at a lower-security facility where they were sent, union officials say.
The St. Louis Correctional Facility, located in mid-Michigan, experienced a surge in violence throughout July, with numerous reports of assaults on prison staff and inmates, according to a report from the Michigan Correction Organization, the union representing the state’s correctional officers.
“We don’t have enough Level V bed space to accommodate keeping them all where they’re supposed to be,” Byron Osborn, Michigan Correction Organization president, said of the prison system’s highest security level. “It’s a big safety concern for us.”
A representative for the Michigan Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.
In July, there were 15 assaults against prison staff and 25 against prisoners. Additionally, 69 prisoners were sent to segregation for fighting, 23 for their own protection and 45 for refusing to stay in the general population, according to the report.
Among the multiple reported assaults, the prison’s yards were closed and a unit was put into lockdown on July 11 after several prisoners attempted to incite a riot, the report states.
Three days later, July 14, a large brawl between 12 prisoners broke out in one of the prison’s housing units. The prison was locked down as authorities quelled the fight. Corrections officers discovered several homemade weapons when breaking up the brawl, according to the report.
The facility was in lockdown for several days. Many prisoners reached their breaking point by July 18 and were flooding their cells, trying to kick open their cell doors and refusing to follow staff instructions, the report states.
Though MDOC as a whole is still dealing with a staffing shortage of correctional officers, the St. Louis facility is one of the few of Michigan’s 26 prisons that is almost fully staffed. Its job vacancy rate was at 3.8% as of July 10.
“The facility is not necessarily one of our main facilities that’s super short on staff, but they are one of our facilities that have a huge problem with prisoners being in the wrong classification,” Osborn said. “Well over half the prisoners that are at that Level IV facility are actually Level V prisoners. This is a state-wide issue, and the St. Louis Facility is just one of the facilities that has a problem.”
The St. Louis Correctional Facility, built in 1999, houses Level IV prisoners within its 67 acres of land in the northeast section of St. Louis in Gratiot County. It has six general population housing units and one segregation unit that houses up to 96 prisoners.
MDOC has four general population security levels for prisoners: Level I, Level II, Level IV, and Level V , according to the Michigan Department of Correction. Prisoner security classifications are based on the confinement and management needs of each prisoner, rather than their convictions.
During an individual’s time in prison, their classification and housing location may change one or more times based on their conduct as well as health care and programming needs.
The state maintains three Level V facilities for men: the Ionia Correctional Facility in Ionia, west of Grand Rapids, and the Marquette Branch Prison and the Baraga Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula.
The Woman’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, east of Ann Arbor, houses all security levels as it is the state’s only prison for women.
Osborn said it is common for MDOC to issue waivers for inmate placement, which allows higher-level offenders to be housed in lower-level facilities.
He used the Chippewa Correctional Facility in Kincheloe, in the eastern Upper Peninsula as an example. “It’s a multi-level facility with a number of Level II housing units, but most of the prisoners that are in those Level II units are Level IV prisoners because they’re being pushed down because the Level Vs are in the Level IVs,” he said. “It’s a giant mess throughout the entire system, across all of the security levels.”
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