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| Camp Brighton prison abandoned |
| By Leanne Smith |
| Published: 04/10/2009 |
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Living next to Camp Brighton while it was an active prison was difficult enough, but the condition of the property today - nearly two years after it closed - is far worse, according to neighbors of the Hamburg Township facility. Thieves have stripped the prison buildings of nearly all copper pipe and metal fixtures that could be sold, and what windows that haven't been broken for access to buildings have been shattered by rocks thrown by vandals, said Hamburg Township Police Chief Steve Luciano. "It's disgusting," said Cindy Morris, who has lived on Swarthout Road near the former prison for 13 years. "I didn't like the traffic with all the vans going by or the prisoners staring at the house when they were outside, but this is worse. Now, you don't know who's back there doing what." The facility, built in 1952 on Chambers Road in the Brighton State Recreation Area, was a minimum security women's prison housing about 400 inmates when it closed in 2007. Today, it's been all but abandoned by the state, said Hamburg Township Supervisor Pat Hohl. "This is tremendous destruction of public property and a tremendous waste of tax dollars," Hohl said. "What's happened there is devastating. It's like Camp Brighton is the state's foreclosed home it's just walked away from." State officials are aware of the condition of the prison and are taking steps to better secure the site, said John Cordell, a public information officer with the Michigan Department of Corrections. Three state agencies are involved with the former prison, Cordell said. The land is owned by the Department of Natural Resources, the buildings are owned by the Department of Corrections and what happens to the site overall rests with the Department of Management and Budget, he said. "We don't have a current use for the buildings and we don't foresee a future use," Cordell said of the corrections department. "The long-term goal is to remove all the structures and turn the property over to the DNR." Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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