ADRIAN — Two Adrian residents recently visited the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, a formerly-shuttered prison in northern Michigan that was reopened in June to house people arrested by federal immigration authorities.
They describe a place that seems disorganized, with guards who are unable to communicate with the people they’re holding and a strong sense of hopelessness among the people who have been taken there.
Aaron Chesher and Ben Moorman first went to the Baldwin prison on July 13 because they were giving a ride to the pregnant girlfriend of an Adrian man who had been arrested a week earlier. However, they also decided to document what they observed.
Much of what they learned came from the man they were there to visit, who was arrested on his way to work on July 8. He told them that he was driving down Division Street when a car pulled up around him, forcing him into the parking lot of the Lenawee County Human Services Building. He said that his vehicle was then surrounded by that car and five others, and that when he reached for the papers in his sun visor, including his work visa, the agents became more aggressive and hostile, and he was ultimately forced to leave his papers in his car.
The man told Chesher that there are about 75 people in the lower-security level of the Baldwin prison, including people from El Salvador, Ecuador, Honduras, France, Brazil, Albania, and Peru. He said the majority of the detainees cannot hold a full conversation in English, but he has only encountered two guards who can speak Spanish. In addition, he reported that many of the detainees do not speak Spanish or English, and there is no translation support for them.
He said that the detainees are issued three uniforms, have limited access to laundry, sleep on unsanitary bedding, and are served “loaf-style” prison food.
Chesher said that on their July 13 visit, they arrived at 3:45 p.m., the time of their scheduled visit, and then waited for about an hour and a half before being taken to the visitation room, where they waited for another 20 minutes before guards started to bring detainees in. One man was brought in even though there was no one there to visit him, while one visitor waited for an additional hour because the guards hadn’t brought the correct person. Chesher said it seemed like the operation was disorganized and the guards didn’t really know who they were holding.
Besides the seeming disorganization, Chesher said he was struck by how tense the environment was. He also described a sense of hopelessness.
“They don’t think anyone cares or will help them, and it’s already done,” he said.
They also described a contrast between the reality of the conditions in the detention center and a few half-hearted attempts to make it seem friendlier. For example, a sign in the reception area says “Welcome” in multiple languages even though almost all of the employees speak only English. And on the walls of the visitation room are large pictures — one a beach scene and the other a homelike Christmas scene with a Christmas tree and a fireplace — that seem to be intended as photo backdrops, although cameras aren’t allowed inside.
“It feels like they’re pretending,” Moorman said.
Chesher and Moorman have now made multiple visits to the facility and have shared their observations with the Adrian Police Department and the Immigration Assistance Office of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
The 1,800-bed facility, which had been closed since 2022, started housing federal detainees on June 16, according to Bridge Michigan.
It is operated by the GEO Group, a Florida-based for-profit company that runs about 100 private prisons in the U.S. and other countries. In a May 7 press release, the company said it expects to generate about $70 million per year in revenue from running the Baldwin facility.
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