Thank the media for exposing MDOC’s soft underbelly!

The press is taking a lot of hits these days. “Fake News” has become a popular phrase in some political circles. As a professional broadcast journalist, I suggest, however, that you join me in thanking the media for coverage of critical state prison issues in Michigan. 

We’ve heard a lot in recent months! 

The Detroit News

 Craig Mauger: Audit reports released Thursday raised concerns about the safety of Michigan’s prisons, finding corrections officers often failed to properly search vehicles and prisoners’ cells and determining metal detectors weren’t uncovering possibly hazardous items. 

The Detroit Free Press 

Paul Egan wrote a series of Freep articles about five fatal plunges at two Jackson area prisons. That prompted this story a few weeks ago: A Senate panel on April 24 recommended spending $15 million to improve the safety of railings at Michigan prisons. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections and Judiciary included the plan in a nearly $2.3 billion proposed budget for the Michigan Department of Corrections. 

CBS 

A Michigan Department of Corrections employee accuses a former spokesperson of sexual harassment, claiming the individual repeatedly coerced her into having sex. The lawsuit was filed by Lisa Gass, who claimed the harassment began in 2021. "Ms. Gass's story is right out of the MDOC playbook," Gass's attorney Jon Marko said in a statement. "Throughout my career, I have seen the MDOC repeatedly turn the victim into the target. Instead of protecting their employees from sexual harassment and abuse, they try to destroy the victims courageous enough to come forward." 

Detroit Free Press

Paul Egan, once again: Detroit man says he needed mental health treatment as an inmate, but was punished instead.  Joel Carter, whose hopes of joining the U.S. Navy were dashed a few months before his 2002 arrest, when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, went on to serve more than 22 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement because he frequently violated prison rules related to inmate conduct, and he was denied visits with his mother and other relatives because he violated rules related to substance abuse in 2008 and 2010. Carter, of Detroit, spent most of his prison sentence in solitary confinement. Doctors believed Carter's behavioral problems, which he was punished for, were linked to his multiple sclerosis. But, according to Egan, the Michigan Attorney General is having no part of it. In an April filing, lawyers from Attorney General Dana Nessel's Office said the Carter lawsuit should be dismissed. They cite governmental immunity and say the fact Carter has now been released makes his claims moot. 

Michigan Advance:

Body camera recordings by guards during strip searches at Michigan’s only women’s prison, Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, has prompted a $500 million lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections, MDOC Director Heidi Washington, Deputy Director Jeremy Bush, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and numerous other officials and correction officers. The lawsuit was filed by attorney Todd Flood on behalf of 20 women, and accuses the defendants of invasion of privacy, intentional abuse, and violation of rights. The suit further contends the defendants were informed of the alleged abuses committed against the female prisoners and the psychological consequences.

There you have it. Those of us involved in prison advocacy are thankful for a free press, with ballsy reporters daring to tell stories you must hear!

“The only security of all is in a free press.”

― Thomas Jefferson

 

 

 

 

 

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