LANSING, MI (WTVB) - The Michigan Department of Corrections is taking some pretty drastic measures. That’s how a state prison official described moves announced Wednesday designed to cut two thousand employees. The Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater wasn’t directly part of the plan revealed yesterday, but some trickle down impact seems likely.
The D-O-C said that in January, the Mound Correctional Facility in Detroit will be shutdown. It houses more than a thousand prisoners. The state says it will also be bidding out prison medical and mental health services statewide.
The changes are long overdue, according to State House speaker Jase Bolger of Marshall. And plans are reportedly pending to privatize prison food services and stores. The Department of Corrections says 700 vacant beds in the system can be used by the Mounds prisoners. The planned savings from the moves are estimated at 50-million dollars next year and as much as 13-million dollars in 2013.
