On March 20, 2013 Dennis Brooks, Corrections Program
Coordinator, provided a presentation to the Lake Superior Elders. It was a stormy day, however, ten elders made
it to this session. I drove in a snow
storm to attend. It was clear on the way
home. Dennis started the presentation by
providing us with a disclaimer, disclaiming that anything he says is in no way
a reflection of the Michigan Department of Corrections. He went on to say that he found the prison
system to be the most negative atmosphere he has ever experienced and he has to
walk through eight locked doors to get to his office. There are 2,300 inmates
housed at this prison facility. Dennis
puts his life on the line every day he works at the prison.
What he provides are babysitting services. The rationale behind the services he provides
is to wear out the prisoners so they won’t get into so much trouble. Extracurricular activities are offered and
classifications for prisoners determine whether the prisoner is placed in a
work setting or school. They get paid to
be in the work and school program. If I remember
right, it is a little over one dollar a day. College courses are not offered;
but the prisoners are permitted to obtain a GED. He works at the lowest
security level which is level two. Level
one was closed down a while ago with very little notice in the attempt to save
money. There was a discussion about the
top heaviness of the prison system. It costs $35,000 to house one prisoner for one
year. Dennis agreed and reported that
the prison system in Michigan uses a lot of state’s budget.
Chippewa Correctional Facility Staffing includes:
Administration:
24
Custody
Staff: 322
Housing
Staff: 22
Business
Office Staff: 7
Food Service
Staff: 18
Warehouse/Quartermaster
Staff: 6
Programming/Education
Staff: 28
Dennis
described the sleeping quarters at the area he works at. Eight men share a room
with four sets of bunks, the bottom bunk is considered the Cadillac of
bunks. There no doors and the walls are
4 feet high (that didn’t make sense to me).
Roll call is conducted three to four times a day. Dennis to add humor and make sense of what prison
life is like compared the life of a prisoner to the life of a housewife. Prison life looked more favorable such as
they get their laundry done for them, whereas a housewife washes her own and
everybody else’s in the household.
Then later
on he explained that they only get to walk around the yard one hour per day and
the yard is very small. The prisoners
are sequestered to their rooms a lot during the day. Their diet consists of 1,200 calories per day
and there is a two week menu that repeats itself. For example, hot dogs are served on
Tuesdays. There is a garden on the
property; however, the prisoners do not eat what is grown in the garden. Dennis
didn’t know why they didn’t eat the produce grown in the garden.
Since the
inmates did not take care of themselves properly before they were incarcerated,
they have a lot of medical needs after they are incarcerated. The inmates pay a $5 co-pay for medical
services. Dentists and doctors visit the
prison once in a while. The inmates
cannot arrange for dental services until they are due for the next cleaning;
however, the slots are often filled so they have to wait until one opens and it
may take a couple of years to get their teeth cleaned. They are supposed to
obtain services every six months; but the system does not allow it. There is a nurse on staff 24/7.
A Jay Pay
(spelling?) account is set up for the inmates to take care of their needs and
some of their wants within reason. The
inmates get paid for work services and some have family members and friends on the
outside who have put money in their accounts. They have access to computers to
place their orders.
Various
other topics discussed were the religious services such as Wiccan and the
segregation between African Americans and Euro-Americans, a very distinct
division. There are gangs and they symbolize what gang they belong to by
wearing handkerchiefs of different colors.
They change the colors on an ongoing basis so they cannot be tracked by
the guards or other gangs. Speaking of
the guards some take their problems out on the inmates by treating them
horribly.
“The inmates
are very creative with some of the things they try to get away with and if they
channeled that energy into good things just think what they could accomplish,”
Dennis stated. That’s so true. Another point he made was about the nice
personalities of pedophiles. We would be
okay with having them over for dinner, they are that nice. They have to be to get children to do what
they want them to do. There are
prisoners who are incarcerated more than once, they are given a letter starting
with the letter “a” by their name and/or number that represents how many times
they were in prison. The highest one he was aware of was a “g.”
Some of the
services are conducive to what the needs of the inmates are such as cage rage
which Dennis provides to the prisoners.
Most of the needs of the inmates are met and many of the inmates grin
and bear it when they are mistreated because some of the guards are power
hungry. He treats the inmates with
respect at all times. Dennis added humor
to the presentation as much as possible; but also reminded the elders that
being in prison cannot be equated to a walk in the park. Some of the inmates are not trustworthy. Some
of the guards are not to be trusted also and take advantage of the prisoners.
One of the prisoners actually killed his girlfriend twice and he was recently
paroled. He strangled her and then shot her. The prison system in
this state leaves a lot to be desired and some of the costs need to be in
question. It is a system set up to
create a lot of high paying jobs and these jobs can be somewhat dangerous as a
person said once boredom is associated with instantaneous dangerous situations
for the employees. As far as I understand, it can be the same for the inmates.
