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| State revamps prison security levels to add more inmates |
| By Mlive.com |
| Published: 02/16/2004 |
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Michigan officials plan to downgrade the security level of the state's only super-maximum prison and double-bunk another facility to make way for about 500 more prisoners. The Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility -- known as I-Max -- is a level six, where the state's most assaultive prisoners are held, spending most of their time isolated in their cells. Leo Lalonde, Department of Corrections spokesman, said last Monday that the 666-bed I-Max would become a maximum-security, or level-five, prison, allowing 31 additional inmates to be housed there. Two units of the five-unit I-Max, each housing nearly 100 inmates, would remain administrative segregation for the worst of the inmates, correctional officials said. The other three units would be for the best maximum-security inmates whose behavior means they are about to be downgraded to level four and sent to other prisons. In addition, 480 prisoners will be transferred to the Oaks Correctional Facility, a 676-bed maximum-security prison in Manistee County. That prison will be downgraded from a level five to a level four, allowing the single cells to be double-bunked. The changes are planned for May. "We're in a severe budget crunch. We're trying to do the best with the resources we have,'' Lalonde said. He said the decision was driven by a shortage of level-four beds, which bumped some prisoners into higher security facilities than needed. The state will spend about $800,000 on new security measures and physical changes for the two prisons, considered a bargain over the option of constructing a new prison. Michigan has 48,322 inmates in 42 prisons and 10 camps. |
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