Rebecca Fackler was in pain, not feeling well, and crying out for help from inside Michigan’s only women’s prison, but no one came to help until it was too late, according to a woman incarcerated near her.
The post Rebecca Fackler begged for help for hours before death at Michigan’s only women’s prison, inmate says appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
For weeks, Shaquillia DeShields says she tried to get help for her daughter inside Michigan’s only women’s prison.
The post Two deaths, mold complaints deepen crisis at Michigan women’s prison appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
Inside a Michigan prison less than an hour from Detroit, 25 incarcerated men are doing something many people behind bars haven’t been able to do in decades. They’re working toward a bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University, paid for in part by federal Pell Grants.
Congress blocked those grants for incarcerated students in 1994. It restored access in 2023. But as the Trump administration restructures the Department of Education, the future of that funding is uncertain.
The question at the center of this story: Can a college degree behind bars change who walks out — and is the country willing to keep paying for it?
Jonathan Roden has lived both sides of that question. He spent 23 years in Michigan prisons. While he was inside, the college path available to him was an associate degree through Jackson College. He wanted more.
He came home in August of 2023. Nine days later, he started at Wayne State. In December, he graduated from the Mike Ilitch School of Business.
Now he walks back and forth through those same prison gates, this time as a coordinator for Wayne State’s prison education program. Roden, a Michigan Justice Fund fellow for WDET, is opening doors for men who are right where he used to be.
He joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro alongside audio from Carlton Banks, a student in the inaugural cohort at Macomb Correctional Facility. Banks was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1994 murder of a teenage Subway employee named Angela Garcia. He was 18. He’s now 48. Under a 2022 Michigan Supreme Court ruling, he expects to come home in 2028. He calls that prospect “a blessing, but not a celebration.”
Hear the full conversation using the media player above.
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The post The Metro: He served 23 years. Now he’s helping the next generation earn a degree behind bars appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.
At least eight prisoners have been freed because of Simon’s misconduct, and her actions have cost taxpayers more than $25 million in lawsuit settlements so far, with more pending.
The post Men still behind bars say ex-Detroit cop Barbara Simon used lies and coercion to convict them appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
Michigan lawmakers from both parties expressed alarm Tuesday over growing allegations of toxic mold, medical neglect, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and systemic failures at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility.
The post Bipartisan outrage erupts at House hearing on conditions inside Michigan’s only women’s prison appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
This is the ninth installment in “Exploring Integrity: Reviewing Wrongful Conviction Remedies,” a series examining the impact of conviction integrity units on the American judicial system’s rate of wrongful conviction. Presented by the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism, the investigation is supported by Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over his four decades in a Michigan prison, […]
The post For nearly 40 years, Temujin Kensu said he is innocent. Will he ever be free? appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
For more than a decade, Krystal Clark has warned that mold inside Michigan’s only women’s prison is killing her.
The post Michigan inmate with mold illness begs Gov. Whitmer to save her life appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.
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