Welcome to the terrordome:

A Look Inside Michigan’s Notorious I-Max Prison

By: Rutikanga Akesi (formerly known as, Mario Lee) 

For decades, brutal conditions inside Michigan’s notorious Ionia Supermax Facility have largely been concealed. But a new class of prison activists and our allies, advocates and comrades outside the prison walls have emerged to finally reveal the harsh world within. 

The Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan, known more informally in verbal shorthand as “I-Max,” is still considered to be the highest maximum security prison in the state of Michigan. A place to imprison the so-called “worst of the worst”–allegedly the most incorrigible class of convicts in the Michigan prison system–I-MAX was build to hold men in extreme solitary confinement and prison officials rely exclusively on this technology of repression and torture to control its “segregated population.” 

I-MAX was designed and operated officially as a level-6 supermax facility from the late ‘80s until 2006, at which point its custody level was reduced to a level-5 maximum security prison. Unofficially, however, I-MAX still operates “off-the-books” as a level-6 supermax with prison staff using a hands on escort format, high-security restraints for escort, and a panopoly of archaic brutal disciplinary measures against socially isolated human beings–all carry-over practices from its hey–day as an “official” supermax. 

From this, we can infer that I-MAX was not constructed, as Michigan prisoncrats claim, for rehabilitation purposes. Not at all–its sole function was, and still is, to break men. Clearly, this isn’t an environment suitable for human life and habitation. 

At I-MAX, captive human beings such as myself typically spend 23 to 24 hours of each day in solitary confinement––an extreme form of disciplinary confinement (ie punishment) which the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture defines as “the physical and social isolation of (human beings) who are confined to their cells for 22 to 24 hours a day.” So whether called “administrative segregation” or “punitive segregation,” it typically means the same thing––we are trapped in our cells at least 22 hours a day, with no escape from what the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has denounced as “torture.” 

In a 2011 report to the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture noted evidence that “solitary confinement, even for a limited peroid, could cause serious psychological harm” (my emphasis) and called on state prisons to isolate imprisoned human beings “only in exceptional circumstances, for as short a time as possible.” 

2011 was significant being that it marked the first year for which complete data on “segregated populations” in amerika was made available. It was also that same year that I-MAX underwent another change. 

In response to calls for radical reform of isolated confinement policies and practices in state prisons, Michigan took a very shrewed and evasive approach that removed its maximum security facilities from the solitary confinement data-bases without making any fundamental or meaningful change whatsoever. Rather than amend it’s policies and isolation practices to meet international human rights standards, the reactionary Michigan Department of Corrections responded by changing the names of it’s maximum security facilities instead––dropping the world “Maximum” from four of it’s five level-5 facilities: Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility, Standish Maximum Correctional Facility (see, mailing address bearing the stamp “Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility,” attached here to at page #7 of photos/exhibits). Like i say, no fundamental or meaningful exchange whatsoever–it’s the same product (ie torture), different packaing. This tactical approach by reactionary prisoncrats has allowed Michigan’s Maximum Facilities to fly under the radar for almost a decade now. As a direct result, the Michigan Department of Corrections’ isolation practices and control units remain inhumane and brutal despite calls to amend policies. 

The I-MAX prison compound can house up to 410 captive human beings in its five cell block units, about 82 people to each unit. Two of the five cellblocks are designated control units: special housing unit (SHU) one, and special housing unit two. Each is divided into two separate “wings” or sides, A-Wing and B-wing. Each wing is a two-tier setup, consisting of an upper tier and a lower tier with 22 cells on each tier. (see, photographs attached here to at page 1-7)

Michigan control units, better known as the “box” in prison jargon, isolate captive human beings for 23 to 24 hours each weekday and 24 hours on weekends and holidays in an 7’5” by 12’ foot single occupancy cell where the only human interaction and or contact (besides occasional cell extractions and staff-on-prisoner assault, or vice versa) is with the two guards that shackle and escort us using a hands-on escort format during all out-of-cell movement actiity (e.g, to the shower, exercise cage, health care visits, court, ect.) At I-MAX, the shu cells are thick concrete cinder-block and steel reinforced walls with sliding solid metal doors. A small window on the door offers a view of the tier (hallway) outside the cell, while a slightly larger window on the back wall allows us to look outside unto the prison grounds (compound). Each individual cell has a metal toilet-sink combo and metal desk (with no chair or sitting surface), and we store our personal belongings in a metal rusted-out footlocker mounted to the floor. We sleep on concrete slabs topped with thin tear-proof / water-proof mattress pads. All meals are served through the door slots by prison guards assigned to the tier (see, photographs of cell attached here at pgs 1-7). Outside exercise activity is limited to one 60-minute session each weekday (no yard on weekends), alone, in a bare, steel cage roughly the same size of the prison cell. There is no exercise equiptment available for recreation (e.g. no pull up bars, dip bars, ect). 

By far, the most damaging and intolerable aspect of being confined to Michigan’s control units is the dehumanizing treatment and brutality that we’re subjected to on a daily basis by sadistic and totally depraved prison guards. The withholding of meals and mail, denial of showers and yard (exercise) opportunities, limited access to reading and writing materials (arbitrary censorship) denial of access to almost all programming, willful destruction of personal effects and appliances (family photos, books, television, ect), failing to provide adequate medical treatment, excessive verbal abuse and harassment, sexual abuse, using excessive brutality (excessive use of chemical agents, restraints / “fettering,” assaults, beatings), and deliberately using isolation practices / conditions that are cruel and inhumane, among other human rights violations, are all normal torture tactics carried out and perpetrated against us by guards with impunity. I-MAX prison authorities have perfected and added to this brutal system or repression. Here, grievances and complaints are routinely discarded or thrown away, and those of us who file grievances and complain about acts of abuse are targeted by staff and retaliated against. 

The above described isolation practices and staff brutality are not isolated acts occurring only at I-MAX, but a long-standing and pervasive department wide pattern and practice of widespread abuse and the falsification of records to cover up that abuse. The Michigan prison system increasingly advances technology of repression and torture. Behind the walls of Michigan’s Maximum security prisons, a vast conspiracy of abuse and cover up exists in violation of 18 U.S.C. & 241, as well as excessive force against imprisoned human beings in violation of the Eighth Amendment Right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. See, 18 U.S.C. & 242. 

From Ionia Max all the way to Baraga Max, located at the Northwesternmost tip of the Upper Peninsula, Michigan’s department staff knowingly and willfully engage in an unwritten agreement, nay, a vast conspiracy to (1) intentionally withhold or otherwise use the denial of meals s a form of punishing captive human beings, (2) unjustifiably strike, kick, assault, unjure, and physically punish captive human beings, (3) Falsely justify uses of force against us by falsifying records and fabricating injuries (4) threaten officers to secure their silence and (5) perpetuate an environment within the prison allowing unlawful beatings, assaults and food deprivation against us to continue indefinitely and with impunity. 

This writer, who’s been indefinitely confined to solitary confinement for over a decade now (and counting), has personally and repeatedly been a victim of the various torture tactics and staff brutality outlined herein. I’ve experienced the cruel hand of the racist prison guard’s dehumanizing treatment and abuse more times than I can keep track. I’ve had finger broken, my right shoulder dislocated twice, personal belongings destroyed or thrown away at least five times, subjected to food deprivation as punishment for weeks at a time, maliciously prosecuted three times on fabricated criminal charges and, among many other abuses, denied adequate medical treatment for nerve damage caused by being repeatedly restrained and hog-tyed (in restraint chains applied extremely tight) for extended periods up to three days. So I’m no stranger to prison torture. I’ve experienced it first hand. I’m a victim of it. I’ve just survived and have lived to tell the story.

I urge you all to overstand that We are human beings, and We deserve to be treated as human beings. Please do not ignore or discount the deplorable, counter-productive and inhumane conditions that We are forced to edure in these torture units. Many of these nefarious and archaic practices take an enormous toll on those of us who, as captives of a powerful entity with a facist police state mentality, must tolerate them at whatever price to our humanity and prospects for a normal future life… not to mention its impact on the society where some of us many eventually return angry, resentful, damaged or deranged. 

Therefore, it’s time for society as a whole to take into account the fact that solitary confinement and the dehumanizing treatment of those of us who are socially isolated cause not only mental health problems, but societal problems as well. Isolated confinement actually make prisons and society less safe than if humane and progressive alternatives were provided. In fact, extreme social isolation increases rather than decreases violence inside prison and out. 

On a brighter note, I feel a strong wind blowing… inside and outside the prisons, consciousness is growing and people are fast awakening to the reality that solitairy confinement is medieval torture–an anachronism from a bygone era. It’s time to cosign Michigan’s isolation policies and practices to the dustbin of history where they belong. No longer will We (me and my comrades in struggle) silently and passively tolerate the harsh and brutal conditions that our torturers force us to endure. We will protest. We will demonstrate and We will organize ourselves in solidarity with our allies beyond the prison walls to assert our humanity. We are determined to put an end to the endless cycle of prepression and torture in Michigan’s control units in particular, and in Michigan prisons in general. We demand change–radical, fundamental, meaningful, sweeping and comprehensive change: real change! Even if it means putting our lives on the line. In the words of the late-great Dr. MLK, Jr: “There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men (and women) are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.” 

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