State's women inmates housed in offices, TV rooms

LANSING — Inmates are being housed in converted TV rooms and former offices at the state's only women's prison as the number of incarcerated women rises in Michigan and around the country, but state Corrections Department officials deny they have a serious overcrowding problem on their hands.

The population of Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility near Ypsilanti has jumped about 16%, from 1,900 in 2011 to about 2,200 this October, officials say. The department has responded by converting four former TV rooms to cell areas that now house a total of 56 prisoners, and 44 former offices that now house 306 inmates, spokesman Chris Gautz said.

This month, the prison plans to open a building that's now used for storage and food services as a cell area that will accommodate 104 inmates, allowing some of the previously converted areas to be returned to their former uses, Gautz said.

Still, when newly appointed Corrections Department Director Heidi Washington was questioned about Huron Valley when she appeared recently before a House committee, she said: "I wouldn't characterize it as being overcrowded."

Officials at the American Friends Service Committee's Michigan Criminal Justice Program in Ypsilanti say they have been fielding complaints from inmates about overcrowding at the facility for the last several years.

Natalie Holbrook, the program director, said the increased inmate numbers and reduced common areas such as TV rooms, combined with longer waits to eat and strains on programming time, heighten stress among a group of women where many suffer from mental health issues. The problem is compounded at Huron Valley because a shortage of female corrections officers has resulted in a mandatory overtime policy there, which puts additional strain on the prison staff as well, she said.

Holbrook said she met with former department director Dan Heyns about overcrowding in 2014 and since then, "things have not gotten better, they've gotten worse."

It may be necessary to open a second women's prison, or "I think they should have an overflow place that may involve a temporary fix," Holbrook said.

Under the current conditions, "it's the least rehabilitative place for them to be."

The MDOC used to house women at several prisons and prison camps around the state before consolidating corrections facilities for women at Huron Valley in 2009, the year the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Northville Township, which used to house about 880 women, closed.

Gautz said there are no plans to open a second women's prison and officials have instead focused on expanding the capacity of Women's Huron Valley.

"We feel this is the most cost-effective way of addressing the issue as opposed to opening a whole new prison, while still providing a safe/secure facility for staff and prisoners at the Valley," Gautz said in an e-mail.

Washington, a former warden at Huron Valley, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections on Oct. 29 that women are paroled from Huron Valley at a high rate, close to 90%, and they have a low recidivism rate of about 30%, but "it's just more and more coming in," she said.

While not acknowledging an overcrowding problem, Washington told lawmakers she plans to "focus some resources and energy" on programs to reduce the number of female probation violators and improve special alternative incarceration options for women.

Gautz said there is still a day room with a TV in each of the four main housing units and the prison is still considered to be more than 100 inmates below its expanded net operating capacity of 2,351.

"It's a number that we are constantly monitoring," he said.

There is no consensus about why the incarceration rate for women has been rising more quickly than the incarceration rate for men, but most theories relate to changes in the rate of drug abuse and related enforcement policies.

State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections who questioned Washington about Huron Valley, said the department needs to either look at opening another facility or find a way to parole more women who are past their earliest release dates.

"There is an issue to deal with here," Irwin said Friday.

Gautz said he's not aware of longer-than-normal waits for meals at Women's Huron Valley, which inmates have complained have kept them late for prison programs. Gautz said the number of showers and toilets per inmate is comparable to those at other Michigan facilities and the number of telephones has increased to 151 today from 68 in 2011.

He said an extra visiting day was added in August 2014 and the number of visits that have had to be cut short because of available visiting room space is comparable to other facilities.

The department has been actively recruiting and added 80 women's correctional officers since January, Gautz said.

Holbrook said women inmates also complain about a shortage of toilet paper and sanitary napkins. She said her agency received records through the Freedom of Information Act showing that the rationing of toilet paper is based on toilet paper usage at prisons for men. But she said men don't need as much toilet paper as women do.

Gautz said toilet paper was reduced to two rolls per prisoner per week in 2013 and female inmates receive one 24-unit package of sanitary napkins per month. More is available for emergencies, he said.

Before the numbers were reduced, there was "rampant abuse," with inmates using toilet paper and sanitary napkins as door stoppers, mattress cushions, insulation, even to manufacture slippers, he said.

Gautz couldn't say how many rolls of toilet paper each male inmate receives per week, but said the amount of toilet paper delivered to Huron Valley is higher than the amount delivered to a similar-size facility for men.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.