In
another sign the Michigan
Department of Corrections has
put common sense on lockdown,
officials confirmed rumors on
Thursday that corrections
officers will for the first time
use electroshock weapons,
usually called tasers.
Although
tasers are nonlethal weapons,
they have killed people. In
time, they will likely kill
someone in a Michigan prison.
Tasers are unnecessary and could
even trigger a riot if, say, a
prisoner is taken down on the
yard with one.
Still,
it appears to be a done deal.
MDOC has already ordered tasers.
They should arrive within a few
weeks. The department will train
officers, then pilot the weapons
at a couple of prisons.
Eventually, the department will
presumably distribute them
throughout Michigan’s
corrections system, which
includes 32 prisons and more
than 43,000 prisoners.
It’s not
clear whether every officer will
carry a taser, or just select
officers with broader security
responsibilities. Either way,
it’s a wack idea and exposes the
state to great risk.
In 2009,
the state settled a federal
lawsuit in the death of Timothy
Joe Souders for $3.25 million,
after Souders died of heat and
thirst in MDOC custody. (He
spent most of his last four days
strapped down, naked and soaked
in his own urine.)
When
someone dies from a taser, the
state won't be able to argue it
didn't kill him. MDOC will be on
the hook for a lot more than
$3.25 million.
And
speaking of tall paper, if the
department is so strapped for
cash, why is it buying
unnecessary, even dangerous,
weapons? To add insult to
injury, these are the kind of
security costs that Michigan
prisoners might have to help pay
for through exorbitant prisoner
phone rates.
A
spokesman for the department
told me, however, that the phone
service’s special equipment fund
did not pay for this load of
tasers, and won't be tapped
until next year. Even so, the
department has said the phone
service fund will be used for
security equipment, and that
includes tasers.
There’s a reason corrections
officers don’t carry weapons:
They’re dangerous inside
prisons.
As
someone who spends a lot of time
in Michigan prisons, I can tell
you the level of frustration
among inmates is high, after
cutbacks in food, basic
education programs, visiting
days and a near doubling of
prisoner phone rates.
If Gov. Rick Snyder signed
off on all this, he’s clueless
on corrections — and dangerously
so.
