By Paul Egan
Detroit Free Press
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigation Friday into complaints about poor air quality and backups of raw sewage at Parnall Correctional Facility near Jackson, as well as maggots and human waste rising through drains into shower rooms.
A Corrections Department employee first complained about odor and sewage issues in August, said Tanya Baker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which includes MIOSHA. She would not identify the employee.
That complaint came five months before Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz confirmed inmates were used to shovel large volumes of raw sewage out of a prison basement in January. Gautz confirmed the sewage was placed in a prison Dumpster to be sent to a landfill and said he believed it didn’t need to be treated as a biohazard because prison officials believe it didn’t contain blood.
Meanwhile, a quarantine was imposed at Parnall on Thursday and continued Sunday as about 70 inmates suffered from a gastrointestinal illness and four cases of norovirus were confirmed. No connection has been established between the fierce stomach virus and the sewage issues, Gautz said.
Baker said MIOSHA opened an investigation Friday and made an unannounced visit to Parnall after receiving another recent complaint from the same employee, who first raised the issues in August. The complaint and investigation were not related to the more recent norovirus issue.
The complaints relate to a program building, known as Building 198, and a nearby unit that houses about 350 inmates, known as 9 Block.
Michael Threet, 38, an inmate who was released from Parnall on parole Thursday, said he and other inmates in 9 Block have experienced severe health effects, including headaches and burning eyes.
Kevin Blair Sr. of Roseville, the father of a second inmate, told the Free Press on Thursday that his son has been ill for months while living in the unit and was recently moved to another housing unit after a test showed unsafe levels of methane in his blood.
But Gautz, who downplayed the sewage and odor issues when first questioned about them by the Free Press in January, continued to minimize the issue on Friday and Sunday. Despite confirming in January that inmates were used to shovel raw sewage from the basement, Gautz said that odor problems relate to the fact “scented plug-ins, air fresheners and aerosol sprays” can’t be used to cover prison bathroom odors because they are considered fire hazards.
“I would hope we aren’t going to have a story in the paper because an employee filed a MIOSHA complaint because they smelled an especially odorous bowel movement,” Gautz told the Free Press in an e-mail.
“MIOSHA inspected the facility today (Friday) with our staff, as well as union officials, and had total access to the facility and was able to tour and inspect any area he wished, and he left without having any concerns,” Gautz said.
But he said the report of the MIOSHA investigation won’t be completed for a few weeks.
According to the latest employee complaint, in the program building, where eight to 10 employees work at any given time, “there is a foul smell (like rotten eggs) coming from the sewage pipes,” Baker said in a-mail to the Free Press.
“The smell is unbearable at times,” and “permeates through the building,” according to the complaint. “Several employees have gotten sick,” and “symptoms include headaches, nausea, and vomiting,” Baker said in describing the complaint.
The complainant said the administration has tried to dismiss the concerns as a ventilation issue. But the complainant said if that was the case the administration would not have cemented over floor drains. The employee said that in the housing unit, known as 9 Block, “maggots come through drains and cracks” in the shower area. The housing unit also has black mold, which can cause breathing problems, the employee alleged in the complaint.
Gautz said those allegations are false.
The MDOC employee also told MIOSHA that during a major sewage backup in January, “the staff who were supervising the inmates cleaning up the spill were not properly outfitted with proper personal protective equipment,” and “the cleanup involved throwing thousands of pounds of human waste into the facility Dumpster.”
Anita Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Corrections Organization union, said she couldn’t confirm whether the employee who complained was a corrections officer.
On Friday, Gautz confirmed Parnall was placed under a partial quarantine Thursday after four cases of norovirus were confirmed and about 70 inmates showed flu-like symptoms.
“We have ... episodes of norovirus at our facilities from time to time, especially this time of year,” Gautz said. “There has been no link determined between this allegation of sewage issues (which has not been proven) and the prisoners who have shown flu-like symptoms.”
Blair said his son has been ill at Parnall and complaining about the air quality for months and was recently moved to another part of the prison after a test by a health department official showed high methane levels in his blood.
“He’s disoriented — he’s been complaining for six months that it’s been affecting him,” Blair said. “I am just very frustrated in the way the justice system, or the prison system, handled something so dangerous.” Long before the sewage backup in the basement, “there was a horrible smell.”
Gautz said Sunday that Blair’s son “was simply moved as a preventive measure as his cell was directly above the pipe that had the issues.” Gautz said he couldn’t confirm what Blair said about blood testing, but he planned to check further on that question today.
Threet said the January backups included sewage bubbling up through drains and covering the floor in the prison shower room. He said inmates who were used to clean large volumes of sewage from the basement in January were not given proper protective gear. He said there were two backups in January, and after the first one, sewage was dumped in the prison yard where inmates walked through it and tracked it throughout the prison, including the chow hall. Inmates later were instructed to bag the sewage and put it in a Dumpster for landfill disposal, Threet said
Gautz denied there was sewage in the shower area. On the disposal issue, he said “refuse and waste was placed in bags and disposed of in the compactor” as “such material is not considered biohazard and is able to be placed in a Dumpster.” He said “the OSHA inspector today (Friday) confirmed that as long as there is no blood present in the waste it is not considered biohazard.”
Threet, who was serving two to four years for larceny in Lenawee County, and who is suing the department alleging a corrections officer broke his hand, said there was both blood and semen in the sewage waste.
Threet said he suffered horrible headaches, burning eyes, and disorientation at Parnall long before the sewage backup and believed he was experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning. “There’s always an odor in there,” he said.
Threet said before he left Parnall he obtained a signed affidavit from another Parnall inmate, which he provided to the Free Press, describing the severe sewage and odor problems. The Free Press has not yet confirmed the affidavit with the inmate whose signature is on it.
When the sewage backed up, “the administration made no attempt to remove the ... men from the building,” Threet said. “Instead, they locked us inside and forced several of the inmates to clean the sewage.”
Gautz has said inmate volunteers were used to remove the sewage and they were paid for their work. Allegations that sewage dumped in the yard was tracked through the prison are false, he said.
Officials at both the state Department of Health and Human Services and the Jackson County Health Department said Friday they have not been involved in any investigations about the Parnall complaints.
———
©2017 the Detroit Free Press