Uses for Old Prisons in Michigan
Northville Township Manager Chip Snider thinks it’s time for some changes at the closed Robert Scott Correctional Facility. “I think we can take the concertina wire down, so it doesn’t look like we’re in Guantánamo Bay,” Snider said, noting that the state should try to make the 35-acre facility across 5 Mile from a Home Depot less ominous visually. Reported in the Detroit Free Press.
Snider and other township officials have been eagerly awaiting word on the future of the former women’s prison since it closed in May, but that wait may be ending.
The Michigan Department of Corrections is expected to declare the property surplus by Feb. 1, one of the key first steps before the state can begin marketing the prison. State officials say Scott’s location at a busy intersection a short distance from M-14 in the affluent Northville area makes it prime property for reuse. But they also acknowledge that closed prisons elsewhere in Michigan face challenges to redevelopment because they are typically in rural areas, and they were built specifically for holding prisoners.
The state Department of Management and Budget currently lists only four prisons as surplus — including the closed Western Wayne Correctional Facility a short distance east of Scott in Plymouth Township. But the state has closed at least 19 prison facilities since 2002.
The state Department of Management and Budget announced Thursday that its real estate division would post a request for proposals from potential developers for Western Wayne on its Web site within the next few weeks. The other surplus locations are in Kalamazoo, Manistique and Marquette.
Plymouth Township Supervisor Richard Reaume said he believes that once the economic climate improves, developers will consider the Western Wayne site attractive, despite its construction on an old landfill. He said the site, which closed as a prison in 2004, had drawn interest from several parties before the economy soured. Like Snider, he would like to see some physical changes at Western Wayne because “it still looks like a prison there.”
Some sites, however, lack the location advantages that the two closed Wayne County prisons enjoy.
In Jackson County, the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility closed in 2007, but the facility has limited redevelopment prospects in part because it is near two other operating prisons. The closed facility is used for administrative offices, according to James Shotwell Jr., chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners.
And it has proven enticing as an authentic locale for moviemakers. In 2008 and 2009, the site was used in three film projects — “Street Boss,” “Betty Anne Waters” and “Stone,” all of which are awaiting release.
Although Standish Maximum Correctional Facility near Bay City did not become a destination for ex-Guantánamo Bay prisoners as proposed last year, Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said corrections officials hope to eventually place other prisoners, possibly from out of state, at the site.
In the Upper Peninsula, the state opted to lease its Mangum Farm prison camp to Marquette County for $1 per year. That solved a problem for both the county, which had an overcrowded jail, and the state, which had an empty prison facility.
The facility, which is now known as the Marquette County Community Corrections Detention Center, houses some of Marquette County’s overflow prisoners.
Marquette County Sheriff Michael Lovelace called the lease a gift. Marlan said the arrangement fits the department’s goals.
“We try to be good partners in the community, and this is an opportunity to help them — and they help us by utilizing the property,” he said. Often, the easiest thing to do with prison facilities is to use them as such, Marlan said.
That’s the case with the Muskegon Correctional Facility, which had been slated to close this month as part of the state’s effort to cut costs. Instead, a deal was struck with Pennsylvania to house 1,000 of that state’s prisoners. The move also should save most of the 264 jobs that would have been lost.
Although cutting costs is a factor in Michigan’s prison closures, it is not the only issue. The need for prison space also has dropped for several reasons, including a drop in the crime rate, efforts to reduce recidivism and some prisoner releases because of budgetary issues.
Total inmate population has declined by about 6,000 during the last three years to about 45,100 now, Marlan said.
Robin Boyle, a professor of urban planning at Wayne State University, said using old prisons for inmates makes the most sense.
“What would I put into a prison?” Boyle said of the closed facilities. “I think the obvious use is more corrections.”
That is not what Northville Township officials want to see happen at Scott. Snider said the township “has been an institutional dumping ground over the last 50 years for the State of Michigan.”
Northville Township Trustee Christopher Roosen said township officials want Scott sold for development instead.
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