MDOC says staff response, phase plans contained July disturbances at Saint Louis Correctional Facility; outlines contraband and classification steps

Kyle Kaminski, offender success administrator and legislative liaison for the Michigan Department of Corrections, told a Michigan House subcommittee that staff contained a July rise in violent behavior at the Saint Louis Correctional Facility and that the department has used a mix of operational controls, technology and policy changes to reduce future incidents.

Kaminski told the panel that the incidents in June and July included multiple assaults on staff — including incidents in which prisoners threw liquids or bodily fluids — resistance to restraint, and a July 14 housing-unit fight that involved about a dozen prisoners and required personal chemical agents and taser use to break up. "The staff again at the facility did a very good job handling that, getting everybody back into their units without any force, or any damage," Kaminski said of an earlier July episode. He said most prisoners involved in the July 14 fight were quickly transferred to higher-custody facilities and issued misconducts.

The department placed the facility under a phase plan after the July fight, Kaminski said, a common corrections practice that temporarily restricts movement and group activities while staff review video, write misconducts, perform searches and conduct intelligence work. He described the phase plan as lasting about a week at Saint Louis, with limited access to the facility's large yard and staggered resumption of activity "on a day over day basis" as compliance was confirmed.

Why this matters: legislators on the subcommittee asked whether the committee received timely notice of serious incidents and whether the current budget "boilerplate" definition of critical incident gives the subcommittee the information it needs to carry out oversight. Kaminski said the MDOC produces a public annual critical-incident report and sends 72‑hour notices under the current budget language; he said the agency believes it is complying with that language but is open to negotiating changes in the next budget cycle. "I am the one who carries out this test for the department — I get the emails for all 4,400 of those," he said, describing 4,400 incidents captured in the department's 2024 annual report and about 65 72‑hour notices so far in 2025.

Details of the incidents and facility response

- Saint Louis Correctional Facility: Kaminski said the facility is primarily custody level 4, holds just over 1,000 people and maintains a segregation unit of about 60 single cells. He said one unit is an adaptive skills residential unit for people with cognitive impairments and that unit was not involved in the July disturbances.

- June 6 (verbal noncompliance): Two housing-unit call‑outs produced visible, noncompliant movement; supervisors and additional staff responded, gave direct orders and brought the populations back without use of force. One prisoner was issued a misconduct that an administrative law judge subsequently dismissed.

- July 11 (individual threat): Staff restrained an individual who had made verbal threats; other prisoners converged but did not meet misconduct thresholds, and staff closed the yard and returned prisoners to housing as a precaution.

- July 14 (multi-prisoner fight): Roughly a dozen prisoners were involved in a housing‑unit fight that required chemical agents and tasers; involved prisoners were issued misconducts and transferred to higher‑custody facilities. The facility used a phase plan for approximately one week to conduct reviews, searches and to re-establish safe movement patterns.

Contraband, mail and technology

Kaminski described contraband — notably synthetic drugs introduced on paper (“dipped paper”) and fake legal mail — as an ongoing management challenge. The MDOC has adopted several operational and technology responses with legislative funding support, including photocopying personal mail (the original is shredded), the use of body scanners for people, pilots of package scanners and deployment of body‑worn cameras for staff. "When a piece of personal mail comes to the facility, we don't have to worry that it's going to be delivered in its original format with drugs on it. It gets photocopied," Kaminski said.

He said the department has encountered fake legal mail and in some cases has contacted the purported sender (law office or court) before delivery; where there is reason to believe mail is laced the department refers cases to Michigan State Police and county prosecutors. Kaminski said the MDOC has prosecuted several attorneys it believes intentionally sent contraband through legal-mail channels.

Classification, programming and operations

Kaminski said the department is reviewing and intends to update its classification tools, which he described as not meaningfully revised in decades and not fully evidence‑based for today's population. He said updating classification is intended to better identify people who are a management challenge and to ensure the department has the tools and capacity to manage them safely. He also said the MDOC has increased programming in higher custody levels to pursue behavior change inside facilities, noting that many people remain in a "precontemplation" phase and will not accept programming unless they engage with it.

Operations decisions the department already implemented, according to Kaminski, include reducing third‑shift movement (overnight movement) to limit activity when staffing is lowest, interior yard fencing to reduce large congregations and electronic tools to improve counts and movement records. Legislators asked about a budget request for electronic count software; Kaminski said that system would automate multiple daily counts and call‑out records, improving both day‑to‑day management and post‑incident investigations.

Data points provided to the subcommittee

- 2024 critical incidents captured in the annual report: about 4,400. - 72‑hour notices so far in 2025: about 65 (projected 75–80 by year end). - Statewide prison population: about 32,500, down roughly 400 since the start of the year. - Compliance groups: Kaminski said about two‑thirds of the prison population (approximately 22,000 people statewide) "receive few, if any, misconducts." He said the persistent, high‑misconduct group numbers roughly 3,400–3,600 people (a little over 10% of the population). - Recidivism: the MDOC measures three‑year reincarceration and reported a statewide recidivism rate of about 21%, the lowest in state history, down from about 45% 15–20 years ago.

Legislative questions and next steps

Committee members asked whether the committee has been receiving adequate notice about serious incidents and whether the budget's definition of "serious physical injury" in boilerplate might be narrowing which events trigger a 72‑hour notice. Kaminski agreed that the "serious physical injury" threshold affects notices and said the department is open to discussing revised language in the upcoming budget cycle.

Representatives also asked for data on how often people are moved from level 4 to lower custody before parole and about how classification departures (waivers) are used. Kaminski said departures and waivers are permitted by policy because a single worksheet cannot capture every case and that the classification team is reviewing how waivers are used to ensure consistency and safety.

No formal committee votes or action items were recorded during the session. Kaminski said the department will provide materials and has work underway to recommend classification changes by the end of the year; he also invited further conversations about the critical‑incident reporting language in the budget.

Ending

The subcommittee did not take formal action; members signaled interest in negotiating boilerplate language and in receiving additional data on classification outcomes and level‑conversion counts. The department said it will share policy documents, data and classification recommendations as the budget and oversight conversations continue.