|
|
| Mich. prison opens doors to Calif. inmates |
| By usatoday.com |
| Published: 08/18/2009 |
|
STANDISH, Mich. — These days, a new mural graces the walls of Six Block. At the end of each tier of 22 maximum-security cells, the white, cinder-block walls sport the bright logos of teams the residents follow: the Detroit Pistons, Michigan State, the Detroit Red Wings. The inmate who painted them all recently added one more: the purple-and-gold logo of the Los Angeles Lakers. The new artwork is part of the prison's marketing campaign to lure California inmates — and save Michigan jobs. Trying to close a $1.2 billion budget gap, Michigan corrections officials don't want to spend $31 million a year to run Standish Maximum Correctional Facility when they have room for the inmates at other facilities in the state. But Standish, with a workforce of 344 people, is the biggest employer in rural Arenac County. In a state already gut-punched by recession, no one wants to lose those jobs. So the state put out the word to its 49 neighbors: relieve prison overcrowding by sending your inmates to Michigan. It's now working on a deal with California, where prisons are so overpopulated that on Aug. 4, a court ordered the state to reduce its prison population by 40,000 inmates within two years. In addition, Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm says that Standish may be chosen as a place to relocate detainees from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — though she says California inmates would be preferable. The Michigan corrections department spruced up Standish with a thorough scrubbing and fresh paint and welcomed a delegation from California last month. Federal officials visited Thursday. "If you're going to market yourself, you've got to clean up," Warden Thomas Birkett says. Michigan says it can save California money: Its cost per prisoner is $32,000 a year, compared with $45,000 a year in California. It's willing to accommodate as many as 2,500 California prisoners by "double-bunking" inmates at Standish, two per cell, and at a second prison in Muskegon, 126 miles southwest. "Have the governor buy them a winter coat and send them to Standish," says the city's mayor, Kevin King. Read More. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think