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| Michigan Officials Fight Plans for Prison Expansion |
| By Livingston Daily Press |
| Published: 10/07/2002 |
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Michigan Department of Corrections Director William Overton will meet with officials from Hamburg Township later this week to discuss a controversial plan to expand the Camp Brighton women's correctional facility located there, according to DOC press secretary Russ Marlan. Hamburg Township plans to sue the DOC regarding the proposed expansion of the 30-acre facility, located near the corner of Chambers and Swarthout roads inside the Brighton Recreation Area. Hamburg officials passed a resolution following a public hearing Sept. 23, demanding a halt to the expansion and calling for an irrevocable legislative cap be placed on the facility, lowering the number of inmates from 404 to 270. The limit is in accordance with a June 1986 memo from then-DOC Director Robert Brown Jr. who stated a 'written commitment' to place no more than 270 prisoners at the camp. The memo also committed to a site plan review of any expansion plans by Hamburg Township, a promise local officials say has been broken. 'We're still looking at their resolution and still considering all the options right now,' said Marlan, who said he didn't know the date the meeting was scheduled. 'We're still in the evaluation stage. We're considering all their issues.' Nearly 150 residents attended the recent hearing; about 30 individuals voiced public concern with their own safety, as well as concerns about sewer and water usage and the environmental impact of expansion. Hamburg Township Clerk Joanna Hardesty has since submitted a memo explaining the issue to every state lawmaker in both the state House of Representatives and the Senate. Local officials are looking to lawmakers to get behind them in opposing the expansion and are relying on Brown's memo to support their cause. 'Once that letter was made available, everything else was a moot point,' said board member Pat Hohl, who proposed the resolution that passed 4-0. The DOC plans to break ground in November to begin the expansion, which will bring an additional 336 female prisoners to the camp. Plans include construction of a 30,043-square-foot housing unit together with a 12,764-square-foot support service and dining facility. The expansion will consume five additional acres of wooded land that currently belongs to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, but is considered part of an area covered under a land use permit filed by the DOC, Marlan said. |
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