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December 29, 2005
MI: State Replaces Male Guards at Women's Prisons
State replaces male guards at women's corrections facilities 12/28/2005
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) ‹ Male guards have been replaced by women in the living units at two of Michigan's three corrections facilities for women.
The change has been made at the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth and the Huron Valley Complex in Ypsilanti in response to allegations of sexual abuse by male corrections officers. It comes six years after former Corrections Director Bill Martin first proposed removing male guards from such units.
More than 1,500 women are held at the two sites.
Also, male officers on morning and afternoon shifts have been replaced by females at the Camp Brighton boot camp near Pinckney that houses about 400 women. Three men still working the midnight shift will soon be replaced, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlin told The Detroit News for a Wednesday story.
"They are finally taking steps toward ensuring the safety of women in their care," said Deborah LaBelle, an Ann Arbor lawyer involved in lawsuits against the corrections department. "I hope they will continue to take steps to end the degrading treatment of women in our prisons."
Patricia Caruso, director of the state Department of Corrections, has said staffing changes were required as part of an agreement reached with the U.S. Justice Department in 1999. The agreement came after the state was sued based on a Justice Department investigation into sexual abuse complaints.
The staffing changes at the three facilities involve 50 positions.
Marlin said 120 corrections officers, 75 of them women, will complete a training program in February and are to make up the new personnel.
A pending class-action lawsuit alleging sexual mistreatment was filed against the Corrections Department nine years ago and now includes more than 450 complaints from former and current inmates. Two additional lawsuits were filed this fall.
In 1999, the state paid $3.8 million to 36 women who filed a similar suit.
A group of corrections officers had filed a lawsuit challenging the staffing changes. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear their case in October.
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Information from: The Detroit News, http://www.detnews.com
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-30/113576784325
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Posted by lois at December 29, 2005 12:12 AM