NCJ Number
79198
Journal
Corrections Magazine Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Dated: (August 1981) Pages: 52-56
Date Published
1981
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes the circumstances and activities of inmate riots in three Michigan prisons, beginning in May 1981, and examines the consequences.
Abstract
For the 1981 Memorial Day weekend, only a skeleton staff manned the 15 wall towers and 12 cellblocks in the 3 complexes of the State prison of southern Michigan at Jackson. The rest of the prison's correction officers had stayed home as part of a mandatory 'payless holiday' for State employees, ordered to help ease the fiscal woes of the State government. In addition, correction officers were discontented over staffing levels and new and stringent due process requirements in disciplining inmates. By Memorial Day, the guards, led by officials of their union, had decided to stage another 'lockdown' and weapons search, despite orders from prison authorities not to do so. During the 'lockdown,' inmates somehow secured officers' keys and freed hundreds of their fellow inmates. The inmate rebellion at Jackson also spawned disturbances during the next 5 days at the Michigan reformatory in Ionia and at Marquette Branch Prison. More than $9 million in damages resulted from the riots, and about 160 inmates and officers suffered mostly minor injuries. Following the riots, 16 staff members, ranging from a deputy warden to line correction officers, including the president of the State guards' union, were fired or disciplined for negligence or insubordination. Some 150 inmates faced criminal prosecution for assault, rioting, or weapons possession. Two State investigative commissions have been established to investigate the uprisings. Some officials fear that the riots have marked the end of an era of trust at Michigan prisons, as complex relationships between officers and inmates that have developed over the years may have been undermined for some time.