Top Stories

The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

Private prison corporation charged with murder

By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.12.08 | 5:18 pm

GEO Group, the private prison corporation which is expanding its facility in Baldwin, Michigan to house “criminal aliens” held by the federal government, has been charged with murder for allowing fatal beatings at a Texas facility.

The three count indictment, released in October by a grand jury in Willacy County, states that in 2001 the company allowed inmates using padlocks stuffed inside socks to beat Gregorio De La Rosa Jr. to death shortly before his release date.

Earlier this year I reported that as Michigan’s only private prison, GEO’s immigrant prison will operate with little oversight.

Pablo Paez, spokesman for GEO Group, told Michigan Messenger that its Baldwin facility expansion is currently underway and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of next year.

Comments

  • beaware

    There will be more, no doubt. no oversights on a private prison? a situation begging for abuse, as all the records indicate. The more frightening aspect of this shameful company, is that they run facilities for minors, both genders. I find it absolutely horrible that this company bought a place in Michigan. The politicos in Baldwin should hide their faces in shame. Readers should google up all the heinous stories on these gulags, and be inspired to notify their respective gov't. bodies to do away with this greed motivated, retched company from operating here

    • careyella

      Located in the poorest county in Michigan (Baldwin's average household income is about $15,000 a year), Baldwin's politicos probably don't care about much more than the jobs the place will bring. Sadly.

  • careyella

    Located in the poorest county in Michigan (Baldwin's average household income is about $15,000 a year), Baldwin's politicos probably don't care about much more than the jobs the place will bring. Sadly.

  • VeraLenora

    I worked in the library at the Baldwin prison when it still had youth offenders. They are on the same national inspection as any other prison and must mean the same guidelines. The Quakers do an inspection as they do other prisons nationally. So do some other nationally recognized groups. The record keeping that must be done by the prison is intense. Some of the guards were a little nit picky, but these are not children in the prison. Guards, or rather officers, are pelted with feces and urine routinely, inmates try and get the guards upset verbally (at the time a lot of people were reading a book called “Verbal Judo” to help them deal with inmates calmly and with control). This is a hard dangerous exasperating job. The prison administration and officers are most definitely not unsupervised.

  • VeraLenora

    I worked in the library at the Baldwin prison when it still had youth offenders. They are on the same national inspection as any other prison and must mean the same guidelines. The Quakers do an inspection as they do other prisons nationally. So do some other nationally recognized groups. The record keeping that must be done by the prison is intense. Some of the guards were a little nit picky, but these are not children in the prison. Guards, or rather officers, are pelted with feces and urine routinely, inmates try and get the guards upset verbally (at the time a lot of people were reading a book called “Verbal Judo” to help them deal with inmates calmly and with control). This is a hard dangerous exasperating job. The prison administration and officers are most definitely not unsupervised.

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