(The Center Square) – The Michigan Corrections Organization recently received reports about an increase in violence at the St. Louis Correctional Facility in recent months.
“The Michigan Corrections Organization has received alarming reports from St. Louis Correctional Facility exposing a hazardous and unsafe reality,” said the organization’s letter.
The Michigan Corrections Organization is the labor union representing 6,000 of Michigan’s corrections officers and forensic security assistants.
The organization’s report includes details about numerous violent incidents that happened throughout July.
Those incidents included 15 staff assaults, 25 prisoner assaults, and 69 prisoners sent to segregation for fighting. Additionally, 23 prisoners went to segregation for protection and 45 for refusing to lock in the general population.
The St. Louis Correctional Facility is in the central part of Michigan and can house more than 1,100 inmates. Operated by the Michigan Department of Corrections, the facility is currently designated a level IV facility.
In the MDOC system, prisons are categorized by security levels I through V, with level V being maximum security. A level IV facility typically houses prisoners considered high risk for violence, escape, or disruptive behavior, with many serving long sentences.
MCO is calling for action to protect the facility’s correction officers.
“These conditions cannot continue,” its letter stated. “It is just a matter of time before corrections officers face more serious incidents, and the lid blows off one or more of these prisons. When that happens, legislators and administrators will not be able to deny that we, the corrections officers, warned them.”
This comes as the organization has become a key voice in Michigan’s recent debates over staffing shortages and prison closures.
In a letter from July, MCO’s president Byron Osborn highlighted similar reports from another Michigan prison, adding that the situation is “out of control.”
“If the topic of unsafe state prisons sounds familiar, it’s because these conditions have been this way for years and are only getting worse,” Osborn said. “The corrections officers need you to address these conditions immediately to ensure their safety, and the safety of other employees, citizens, and the prisoner population.”
The report from MCO alleges that many of the prisoners in the St. Louis Correctional Facility should not be in that facility, but in a higher security one.
“Currently the majority of prisoners being housed in the level 4 general population units are actually level 5 prisoners,” the letter said. “The lack of adequate segregation bed space needs to be addressed.”
The organization warned there could be extreme consequences if this is not addressed by MDOC quickly.
“The MDOC is failing to safely manage the security levels of prisoners in the prisons, and it is placing the lives of staff and prisoners in jeopardy.”
