Upper Peninsula prisons guest editorial by Glen Pittman, MDOC retired: “View from the Inside Out”

View from the Inside Out

Having worked almost 29 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections, an observation or two can be made on how and why things are done. These are my views and in no way represent the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Glen Pittman, MDOC retired

I am not going to get into bashing the Department and dwelling on the stories of corruption that are floating around. If that’s what you want, go rent some good prison fantasy movies. The vast majority of men and women working in this field are some of the most upstanding and respected member of their community. These are people who go to work every day in one of the most negative environments you could work in.

These Officers and staff deal with daily degradation and insults coupled with witnessing some of the most brutal and de-humanizing behavior you could not even imagine being inflicted on others. Studies have shown that enduring years of this environment have had a negative impact on Correctional Staff’s physical and mental health.

You may see them picking up their coffee and snacks at the gas station as they head into work, many thinking, “Over paid Babysitters” but, the truth is you want them there keeping your nightmares locked up.
The general public looks to Corrections as a waste of tax payer’s dollars. Money goes into the Department with no tangible product being produced. The public likes to see a product for their tax dollars, a nice park, and a smooth highway, something they can touch and enjoy. Correction’s product is none of that. The product is unseen in public safety and the removal of the menace; all happening behind a fence or wall hidden from public view.

When Corrections functions properly, the public ignores the product of that blanket of safety being produced. Ironically, the only time the public shows attention is when things go wrong and that veil of security to them is torn; i.e.: 1980 riots. Funding was generous, build more facilities, hire more Officers, get the menace off the streets and keep them there. Time has faded the memories of that event and today’s public have but a distant memory of those events, many not even being born during that period.

The atmosphere now is decrease facilities, increase populations with Officers doing more for the same. In essences, the product produced by Corrections has also been their own demise. Still, these Officers and staff go into work every day maintaining an impossible wall of security for the public.
So the next time you see that “Over paid Babysitter” getting a coffee and snack before they head into the human abyss, say “Thanks, I couldn’t do that”.

Glen Pittman
MDOC Retired

Glen Pittman, MDOC retired

Marquette Hotel Stabbing/Cutting; U.P. Hangings: U.P. Mental Health Cuts Spilling Into Public – Treat ’em and Street ’em with Pills

Saturday night stabbing/cutting reported at Ramada Inn in Marquette, MI; U.P. suicides and suicide attempts continue this morning

Editor’s note to Marquette Police and Fire Department – U.P. Breaking news has always enjoyed a good relationship and cooperated with you folks, but still our email has not been added to your press releases. Please do so if you have the time – smile. (including anything about the Ramada Inn cuttings)

For decades this reporter and U.P. Breaking News did not believe in publicizing suicides. A total blackout. However, that old-fashioned approach by the media is not working – and actually helps hide the true depth of the problem.

By Greg Peterson
U.P. Breaking News
Owner, News Director
906-273-2433

(Marquette, MI) – Marquette police, firefighters and paramedics were called late Saturday night to a reported self-inflicted female stabbing victim and a second male victim with cuts at the Ramada Inn located at 412 W. Washington Street in Marquette, MI.

However, little is known officially about the incident. Meanwhile, for at least the second time in a few days – a hanging was reported early today to police in the U.P. and this one involving a Delta County boy. 

“A 23-year-old female stabbed herself in the stomach,” a dispatcher told police and emergency personnel responding to the scene.

The victim allegedly stabbed herself “below the ribs on the right side,” the 911 dispatcher told emergency responders. “The female (victim) is disorderly in the (hotel) room … She doesn’t have the knife in her hands.”

Paramedics were told about a second victim : “There is a male with a laceration on his arm.” Police were on the scene for over an hour and a half – and then went to the U.P. Health System – Marquette hospital early today to continue their investigation. No word on the names or conditions of those involved. However, the injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

Firefighters and paramedics were briefly staged in the lobby while police secured the scene. Te dispatcher said 911 “were waiting word” from police on allowing emergency crews to enter the room to ensure “good status before you go in.” The room was quickly secured by police.

There is also no word on whether the case will end up with any criminal charges.

If the stabbing at the Ramada Inn was self-inflicted – it would become the second stabbing this winter to have associated mental health issues. A homeless man was arrested in Marquette in Nov. 2016 for a stabbing behind the Marquette warming center.

https://upbreakingnews.com/2016/11/17/marquettescissorsstabbing

Marquette Police, Marquette firefighters and paramedics from U.P. Health System – Marquette were all called room 117 at the Ramada Inn just 11 p.m. ET on Saturday, January 28, 2017.

Meanwhile in Escanaba, MI early today, Sun., Jan. 29, 2017 word of a hanging involving a youth whose “mother cut him down” after discovering the young male in the basement. His age and condition is not known. The ictim was rushed to St. Francis Hospital.
U.P. Breaking News is withholding the address of this tragedy – as the family is suffering unimaginable pain –  as we did two days ago in the Copper Country. This comes about 48 hours after a reported hanging of a adult man in a Houghton County Barn.

This week alone, there were numerous incidents or raging children – and of defiant school children – in Escanaba and across the U.P. Folks this is real stuff. It is happening. Hopefully one day the U.P. media will do more to expose these and other issues.

An ongoing one-year investigation by U.P. Breaking News investigation into the mental health crisis in the U.P. has turned up many alarming facts – in addition to the shocking rise in suicides and attempted suicides – and a meth and prescription drug epidemic.

For example, ironically some the addiction problem is caused by the ‘treat ’em and street ’em” state and federal pill policies. Numerous military veterans have told U.P. Breaking News that the V.A. Hospital in Iron Mountain hands out pills because its the cheapest way to treat and street vets.

Meanwhile even drugs prescribed to help treat U.P. drug abusers in their teens to their 60s have found there way back onto the street to be abused – like the Box Heads of thew U.P. – all addicted to Suboxone – originally designed to treat opiate abuse. The crisis is so bad even those in mental health can not agree on how to reign in the problems and start fixing the issues. Some are long-timers just hoping to get a retirement and pension.

Bloody Budget Cuts – The Budget Axing of Poor People With Real Needs

U.P. Breaking News has traced state budget cuts and mismanagement of the Snyder Administration to deaths and other issues stretching from the corrections and understaffed prisons, to mental health to an overload in the court system.There state budget cuts have left experts with few tools other than medication on both the local and federal levels.

The cuts have also led to an environmental crisis in the U.P. and downstate. One example – other than the Flint water crisis – is the destruction and decimation of the deer population. the graft involving the acid mines were so bad, one of the original companies fled town, hoping the feds were not watching.