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| Women's minimum-security prison to be closed in Michigan |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/16/2004 |
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A minimum-security prison in western Wayne County (Mich.) will be closed and its female inmates will be transferred to a center in Ypsilanti that currently houses mentally ill offenders, a corrections department spokesman said last Wednesday. The switch will save the state $22.7 million and will be included in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's budget proposal, said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. The 842 female prisoners at the Western Wayne Correctional Facility in Plymouth Township will be moved to the Huron Valley Center over a period of time, Marlan said. The 230 mentally ill offenders at the center will be transferred to the nearby Huron Valley Correctional Facility, he said. The Western Wayne facility and the Huron Valley Center have about the same operating capacity; they each can take between 850 and 900 prisoners, Marlan said. "The Huron Valley Center was originally constructed as a female correctional facility so it makes it the perfect location to transfer Western Wayne prisoners," Marlan said. "It's being underutilized as the Huron Valley Center." The 500 prisoners at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility will be disbursed throughout the prison system, and the facility will be transferred to the state Department of Community Health so it can monitor mentally ill offenders, Marlan said. With the closure of the Western Wayne facility and the transfer of the Huron Valley facility to the state health department, the state will save nearly $23 million because ultimately it will be operating two fewer prisons, Marlan said. The Western Wayne prison is an old facility and has the highest daily operating cost of any minimum security facility in the state, he said. |
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