MLive Express Desk
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LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Corrections is moving forward with plans to add 870 high-security beds across multiple facilities as part of an effort to improve prison safety and operations.
The expansions include $152 million in funding secured for fiscal year 2027 to build two new high-security units at Oaks Correctional Facility and St. Louis Correctional Facility.
Once completed, the new units will add more than 400 Level IV and Level V beds and are expected to take roughly two and a half years to construct.
“When we have the right housing to support individuals throughout their course of incarceration, we create safer facilities for staff and increase the success of those housed there,” MDOC Director Heidi E. Washington said. “Our population is always changing and the transitions happening right now will deliver immediate improvements in how we operate. At the same time, our new investments in high security infrastructure will ensure that, moving forward, we will be providing the most advanced and effective correctional environment available within these new units.”
Additional changes are already underway at Macomb Correctional Facility, where the department announced in March it would increase Level IV beds.
That transition will add 182 beds and allow for closer supervision and more limited movement. The project is scheduled for completion by Sept. 18, 2026.
Oaks Correctional Facility is converting multiple units to create a 192-bed Level IV unit and a 96-bed Level V unit.
Prisoners affected by the changes will be moved to other facilities that meet their needs, with those requiring protective housing relocated to either Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility or a protective housing unit at Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility. The conversions are projected to finish by the end of 2026.
Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility is converting a Level II general population unit into a protective housing unit to maintain capacity after the Oaks Correctional Facility protection unit conversion. The improvements and prisoner relocations are expected to be completed this fall.
Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility is upgrading 30 cells to meet ADA accessibility requirements, providing more options for housing individuals with accessibility needs. That project is expected to be completed by early January 2027.
The initiatives are part of the department’s Safe Prisons Initiative aimed at improving prisoner classification and bed space throughout the state’s correctional system.
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