STANDISH, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Once home to 600+ inmates and a brief film career, the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility has been collecting dust (and taxpayer maintenance bills) since its 2009 closure. The facility sits on about 118 acres and is 27 miles north of Bay City. Built in 1990, it was closed down due to budget cuts.
Despite a cameo in the indie film Heartlock, the concrete complex has spent more than 15 years as a monument to government indecision – silent, idle, and forgotten. At least until now.
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The Michigan House approved a bill in a 62-47 vote on Thursday, June 12 to authorize the sale of the abandoned prison, with nearly all Republicans supporting and most Democrats opposing. Five Democrats crossed party lines to back the bill, while one Republican, Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers), voted no.
Mental health facility or immigration detention location?
The bill allows for the property to be sold publicly, to a local government, or transferred to another state agency, but does not restrict its future use – prompting concerns from Democrats about potential private prison or immigration detention purposes. The legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Bill sponsor state Rep. Mike Hoadley (R-Au Gres) hopes that the site can be repurposed for community needs in the state. For the past three years, he has been working to bring together local law enforcement, mental health providers, and healthcare systems to explore potential uses for the property.
Hoadley said in a floor speech, “Michigan is facing a mental health epidemic. Healthcare providers, law enforcement, local officials and citizens alike are all too aware of this problem. We are also facing housing and other deficits while such a resource sits vacant, bearing the cost of its general maintenance on Michigan taxpayers.”
Hoadley added, “Bed space is an absolute shortage in the state and just everything in the northern rural communities, everything in healthcare can be a little bit of a shortage there. So hopefully we could do something that would fill that void.”
Democrats push back on prison sale without strings attached.
While the idea of turning a former fortress of punishment into a haven for healing sounds good to many, not everyone is happy with the sale. Democrats in the House raised concerns that the bill doesn’t require the facility to be used for anything specific – meaning it could just as easily become a for-profit prison or an immigration detention center.
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Rep. Kristian Grant (D-Grand Rapids) warned that without restrictions, the state might just trade one kind of cage for another. She said about the plan, “There is always value in being able to repurpose a facility and serve the community that it’s a part of, and I do believe that community deserves that. But
I think that right now, people are expecting the Democratic Party to be a filter, to be a stopgap for things that are happening, and they’re also holding us accountable for every single vote.”
What’s the sale price?
The Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget will decide fair market value, and from there, the property could be sold.
Whether the former prison becomes a much-needed mental health facility, an immigration detention center, or slips back into serving the incarceration industry depends on what happens next in the Senate – and who ultimately buys the property. For now, the gates remain closed, but the debate over what lies beyond them is just getting started.
