An incarcerated woman with mold growing in her ears. Corrections officers making bets on whether incarcerated women on suicide watch would take their own lives. Retaliation against staff who called out poor medical care.
Lawmakers heard scathing testimony Tuesday alleging that these and other persistent issues jeopardized the health and wellbeing of those incarcerated at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility.
“People say that Michigan doesn't have a death sentence,” Andi Allen, a certified drug and alcohol counselor, told the Michigan House Oversight Committee. “It does: It's Women's Huron Valley.”
Representative Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) said an assessment of the physical conditions and medical care at the facility — Michigan's only women's prison — showed multiple reports of injuries and illnesses not being addressed," before detailing lapses in care for several women.
Pohutsky began by detailing a timeline between when an inmate named Jennifer Wallace first fell ill and when she died weeks later from sepsis.
Her mother, Susan Wallace, first became concerned about Jennifer on November 1 when she missed a visit because she wasn’t feeling well, Pohutsky said. The following week, on November 9, Susan again went to visit her daughter, and found her in a wheelchair.
“She could not eat or drink,” Pohutsky said of Jennifer. “She could not lift her head and she was gray. She told Susan that she could not finish the visit.”
For days, Susan called everyone she could at the prison from the warden to the nursing hotline, Pohutsky told the committee. Eventually, Pohutsky said, she was told that her daughter had developed an infection in her heart and would require surgery.
“On her way in to see her daughter in recovery, she was told that Jennifer had died. Jennifer's last words to her mother were, ‘Mom, I don't deserve this,’” Pohutsky said.
Wallace's family is suing over her death. “Jennifer’s death is not an isolated event,” the family's lawyer, Todd Flood, said in a statement. “It is part of a pattern that underscores a fundamental truth: When institutions fail the people in their care, the human cost is real, and someone must answer for it.”
This summer, a judge allowed a class action lawsuit related to mold exposure to move forward.
Krystal Clark, one of the plaintiffs in that case, has been raising the issue of black mold in the facility since 2016. Photos of her taken inside of the facility show her face has grown slack, which Pohutsky said is due to swelling in her face, per her medical records. Clark also appears to have a fungal infection in her ear in a photo displayed during the hearing, said Pohutsky.
“When I saw her,” Pohutsky said, “The growth was present in both ears. It has spread to the outer parts of the ear. It is fuzzy and she also has a white rash or growth [around it]."
The state representative added that she had noticed black spots in the shower area of the facility when she visited, but prison authorities denied they were mold.
“I asked the warden what those black spots were,” she said. “And he told me that this was black paint on clear grout, that there was no mold, and he offered to eat it in front of me.”
Laresha Thornton told the committee that even as she tried to help incarcerated women receive medical care through her role as a teacher’s aid in the prison, she developed medical issues herself. Thornton said they were related to the five years she spent working at Huron Valley.
“I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis,” she said, noting she didn’t realize how much the poor conditions impacted her until she became severely ill. “ I was hospitalized and was told that my intestines were swollen because of the mold.”
In response to taking leave to address her medical issues, Thornton said she faced retaliatory transfer and increased surveillance.
The prison system’s legislative ombudsman, Keith Barber, said that he was aware that mold remained a persistent issue in the facility due to trapped moisture and poor ventilation, but he said conditions have improved in the last several years.
“They're trying things. They have industrial fans. They're doing a lot of different things,” he said, adding, “I don't think it's adequate."
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concern over testimony from the ombudsman, former employees, and the report from Pohutsky.
“In this country, we we certainly have a problem with mass incarceration,” said Dylan Wegela, a Democrat representing Garden City. “But we also have the Eighth Amendment, which is supposed to protect people from cruel and unusual punishment. And this sounds very cruel and very unusual.”
Josh Schriver, a Republican who represents parts of Macomb and Oakland Counties, approached the issue from a different perspective. “What I'm reeling with right now is the money's there,” he said, noting that the state budget allocated $2.1 billion to the Department of Corrections. “The money's there. What gives?”
In a statement the Michigan Department of Corrections said it is “committed to the health and safety of those currently under our supervision.”
Public Information Officer Jenni Riehle added that the department “provides a consistent community standard of medical care for those housed in our facilities. This includes preventative care, annual health and wellness screenings for all incarcerated individuals, and access to outside specialists when needed.”
Riehle also said that the Corrections Department is committed to being a “transparent partner” and would provide access to its facilities to lawmakers, as well as health records for incarcerated individuals who have signed a release.
