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Marquette County Board passes resolution in support of Ojibway Correctional Facility

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution in support of the Ojibway Correctional Facility at Tuesday night’s meeting, with commissioner Joe Derocha absent.

The resolution stems from an announcement by Michigan Department of Corrections that the Gogebic County prison, which employs over 200 people and houses up to 1,180 inmates, will close Dec. 1.

The resolution passed Tuesday states the board “strongly favors the continued operation” of the prison “as a vital facility for the (Michigan Department Of Corrections) and housing unit for Upper Peninsula prison inmates.”

Commissioners shared a myriad of concerns about the impacts of the closure on Gogebic County and the Upper Peninsula at Tuesday’s meeting, citing potential negative economic impacts from the closure on local units of government in the U.P.

“It’s a blow, obviously, to that part of the U.P. because of the loss of these 200-plus jobs,” said Marquette County Board Chairman Gerald Corkin.

With the payroll of the facility’s 200-plus employees having an impact of over $55 million on Gogebic County, the closure of the Ojibway Correctional Facility could hurt an already struggling local economy, commissioners said.

“This is a terrible blow for them, this is an important thing for them, it really is,” Commissioner Bill Nordeen said.

In addition to concerns about the loss of jobs in the area, commissioners also spoke about the impacts of the closure on U.P. county jails, as the resolution states there could be a “significant future impact” on overcrowding at Gogebic’s county jail.

“A lot of what’s going on with the closure of state institutions around the state is they’re lowering their costs and it’s coming back to the 83 counties,” Corkin said. “And the numbers are going up and a lot of these (people being jailed) are repeat offenders of various kinds and are coming out of the state facilities and now they’re in the county facilities, so this has been a problem in our county and it’s been a problem in every other county. So they’re cutting their budget over the last five years, but the counties are having to pick up a lot of the expense.”

Commissioners also noted they felt U.P. counties should have had more input on the planned closure.

“The 15 counties in the U.P., we tend not to have a lot of say in Lansing. And I’m not sure we’re part of the discussion about when they want to reduce facilities, what gets reduced and how it affects counties,” Nordeen said.

The resolution passed calls for the state to conduct and fund an independent economic impact analysis before “any future Upper Peninsula prison is proposed for closure; including the Ojibway Prison.” Furthermore, the resolution states Michigan should be required “to provide adequate financial resources and economic aid and a facility re-use plan to mitigate the economic impact, loss of jobs, loss of local tax revenues and subsequent overcrowding of local county jails.”

Cecilia Brown can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. Her email address is cbrown@miningjournal .net.

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