“Cashless Jail” Companies Expand Partnership

DETROIT – Continental Prison Systems Inc., dba EZ Card and Kiosk, and Canteen Services of Michigan, recently expanded their strategic partnership to allow EZ Card and Kiosk to deploy its "cashless jail" solutions in several county jail facilities throughout Michigan.
 
Canteen Services of Michigan, a major entity in the commissary, food and inmate accounting services jail corrections space, is a licensed franchise of Canteen Corp. for a number of counties in Michigan.

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Mich. Jail Project On Track

Allegan, Mich.

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Facility of the Month: Kent County, Michigan

Project Data
Facility Name: Kent County Correctional Facility
Construction Budget: $27 Million
Number of Beds: 320 new beds
Area: 85,000 square feet
Start Date: June 2010
Scheduled Completion Date: December 2012
 
In a project that combines yesterday, today and tomorrow, the new addition to the Kent County Correctional Facility in Grand Rapids, Mich.

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Mich. County Renews Prison Contracts at Higher Cost






Michigan Village Hopes for Prison Reopening

BALDWIN, Mich. — When Michigan’s North Lake Detention Facility stopped housing youthful offenders five years ago, the tiny city of Baldwin lost its largest employer, the tax base shrunk and a number of restaurants and stores closed. The county’s unemployment rate hit 20 percent earlier this year.
 
Residents and officials in Baldwin are now hoping that a private prison contract involving inmates from California will help revitalize the areas economy.

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Cuts Leave Michigan Prison Towers Unmanned

LANSING, Mich. — State cutbacks have left many of Michigan’s prison towers unmanned as improved technology and shrinking budgets make them as obsolete.

The Mound Correctional Facility and Ryan Correctional Facility, both in Detroit, became the last of the state’s 34 prisons this past summer to end around-the-clock tower guard duty. While armed officers watch prisoners move around the facilities, the towers are no longer the prisons’ main line of defense against escapes, according to a Michigan Department of Corrections official.

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Jerry Elmblad, A Plant Guy

Vital Stats
Name: Jerry Elmblad
Age: 55
Field: Facilities, physical plant and energy management
Title: Administrative Manager
Agency: Michigan Department of Corrections
Time Served: 25 years

Jerry Elmblad’s office at the Michigan Department of Corrections in Lansing is littered with papers and publications on cutting-edge technologies.

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Michigan Mulls Privatization of Juvenile Justice

LANSING, Mich. — In an effort to make up a $2.8 billion shortfall in statewide revenue, Republican state legislators introduced a bill that would complete the privatization of Michigan’s juvenile justice system.
 
The long-term plan, which will be considered for the 2011 budget cycle in an effort to streamline government services and avoid statewide tax increases, would result in the state closing at least four high-security facilities and the estimated loss off 274 state employees.

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