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Prisoners go on a hunger strike at Baldwin’s North Lake Correctional Facility

Taylor Wizner
/
Interlochen Public Radio
Members from No Detention Centers in Michigan protested outside North Lake Correctional Facility on its opening day Oct. 1, 2019.

 

Inmates inside the North Lake Correctional Facility — an immigrant prison in Baldwin — allege conditions are so unsafe that some have been put in prolonged solitary confinement. 

They further allege prison guards are segregating the facility by race, and the amount of food that they’ve been getting recently hasn’t been enough, specifically citing a lack of protein.  

The facility is a privately-run federal prison that houses immigrants convicted of federal crimes.

GEO Group, the prison operator, and the Bureau of Prisons — which oversees the group — both deny there is a hunger strike in the facility.

However, 10 prisoners within the facility are on the fourth day of a protest, relatives and advocates of the inmates say. 

JR Martin with No Detention Centers in Michigan, a statewide immigrant advocacy group, has been in touch with inmates and their relatives.

“This is just not a facility in which they feel safe,” they say. “And they don’t believe the GEO Group is able to protect anyone’s safety.”

IPR will update this story as it develops.

 

Taylor Wizner covers heath, tourism and other news for Interlochen Public Radio.