State formally ends Ojibway's 47-year history here today

MARENISCO - Today is the official date of closure for the Ojibway Correctional Facility in Marenisco. It's a practical matter for the Michigan Department of Corrections and a personal one for local residents, who learned only last summer of the state's decision.

According to Chris Gautz, public relations representative for MDOC, more than 800 prisoners from OCF already were moved to other prisons as of a few weeks ago. As for about 200 employees, he said, "The vast majority have been transferred."

Gautz told the Daily Globe Thursday about 50 OCF employees are now laid off. "The vast majority of those had the ability to continue to work with the department (in other state prisons), but chose not to," he said, explaining they had various reasons, including having children in local schools, or mortgages, or no desire to leave the area. "It's very understandable," said Gautz.

Richard Bouvette, Marenisco Township supervisor, said he expects the region to experience a seeping impact from the prison closure. He estimates tens of millions of dollars will be lost annually in prison wages and in peripheral losses. Gradually, he said, food suppliers, gas stations, grocery stores, uniform providers and others will feel the effects of the lost business and shed employees or close.

Moreover, Bouvette said, some of the employees who chose to transfer from Ojibway to other prisons will at first commute here to see family and friends as much as possible. "They'll do that for awhile, and eventually they'll stop," he said. He expects at that point many of them will move elsewhere with their families, rather than return here.

Gautz said it is a public misperception that the facility closed because of its proximity to MDOC. "It's not that they were far from Lansing," he said, adding the bigger problems were:

-If backup support were needed from other state prisons, it would take too long for employees to travel there (the state's Baraga prison is about 100 miles away.)

-No large hospitals are available nearby to provide specialized care to prisoners when needed.

-State statistics show that recidivism is not as high when prisoners and parolees have family support, and many of OCF's prisoners were a long distance away from their families.

-It was difficult or impossible to hire specialized staff for prisoners' programming or medical needs.

Gautz said the prison had consistent challenges in trying to hire staff with the needed credentials to serve prisoners with histories of mental health, substance abuse or sex offenses.

"I don't know if it's because of that location or if it's because people with those kinds of degrees don't want to live here," he said, adding that OCF used a mental health specialist from Marquette for awhile, but added, "Then, she didn't want to live in Marquette, either."

As a result, said Gautz, the state was not comfortable sending prisoners with special issues to OCF. He added the state also could not send maximum security prisoners here because OCF was a minimum security prison.

Moreover, Gautz said, the state has no plans to use the OCF property for any other purpose. He said, for instance, it cannot be used to house U.P. prisoners because prisoners are placed according to their needs, not their region.

Regarding what will happen to the property, Gautz said MDOC will not just shut off the utilities and let the buildings deteriorate. "We'll winterize the buildings there," he said, adding they also will continue to be maintained as needed. The same goes for the OCF water tower, he said.

The goal, said Gautz, is to keep the facility "move-in ready" so the state can sell it to another interested party. If a business purchases the property, said Gautz, the region then will gain by collecting taxes, from which the state has been exempt.

Gautz said MDOC currently is maintaining other facilities also targeted for sale. In addition, he said, "We have a number of facilities that are in the process of being purchased."

Marenisco Police Chief Bruce Mahler is not as optimistic. "They'll lock the gates and walk away," he said, adding the state has abandoned other facilities such as Camp Ottawa. Such places, he said, "are sitting there deteriorating."

Mahler added, however, that Marenisco has an ordinance to prevent neglect of property, and said local officials will enforce it.

Crime to increase?

Another problem the police chief envisions is crime will increase in line with heightened foreclosures and unemployment. He said he had planned to retire at the start of the year and work as men's baseball coach at Gogebic Community College. He now has abandoned that plan and will drop the coaching so he can remain as chief. "There's no way I can do both," he said.

Long-term impact

Mahler said the prison's closing will have a huge long-term impact on the region. He is also angry about OCF employees who have agreed to transfer to other facilities and now face long commutes or separations from their families. The added travel such employees face will put them in danger during commutes, and he is annoyed state officials do not see that issue as their responsibility. "They can say it's not their responsibility, but taking care of their employees - that is their responsibility," he said.

As a retired Air Force officer, Mahler said he learned in the service that "you don't have a mission unless you have the people to take care of the mission." It's just as essential, he said, to supply and support those people.

OCF opened as Camp Ojibway in 1971 and was reconfigured as a Level II prison for males in 2000. In recent months, local officials and other citizens made a game effort to keep the facility open, holding fund-raisers to help Marenisco Township file a lawsuit against MDOC to block the prison closure.

On Wednesday, however, a Court of Claims judge dismissed the suit. In response, Bouvette said local officials are not sure yet about what they will do next. Without a lot of money or resources, he concluded, "There's only so much we can do."

Gautz praised OCF warden Kathy Olson and all of her staff for doing "an excellent job" in facilitating the closure. "It's a very involved process," he said.

But he emphasized the suit dismissal caused no excitement in his department. "I don't want people to think we're happy about the result," he said. "There were no cheers."

MDOC previously reported it will save $19 million in the next fiscal year by closing OCF.