End Inhumane Treatment of Women in Michigan Prisons – Women’s eNews
It is the height of irony.
In the same month officially proclaiming March as Women’s History Month, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called on the legacy of women from Michigan “who have continued to provide both healing and hope throughout history” and who have “paved the way for future generations…to have safer communities to live in.”
Michigan’s single women’s prison, Women’s Huron Valley, holds more than 1,700 people. According to testimonies from those directly impacted, women in this facility endure dehumanizing procedures that contradict every value espoused in the governor’s river of hope-filled sentiments.
The most recent onslaught of harm is demonstrated in the abusive policy of Corrections Officer body-worn cameras that are used during all officer and incarcerated persons interactions, including during strip searches, in the bathroom, during urine drops, and in the showers.
In 2023, The Michigan Department of Corrections instituted the body worn camera policy that cost the taxpayers of Michigan over $7 million to implement and will cost nearly $ 4 million a year to maintain.
These cameras record every interaction between correction officers and incarcerated people, even while people are in states of undress. Yet, corrections officers are allowed to pause the cameras when they use the restroom. Recording a person in a state of undress, without their consent, is a felony under Michigan law
Strip searches—already a routine and invasive procedure—now occur under the watch of these cameras. The abusive practice of strip searches is a daily experience for many incarcerated people and performed after every visit women have with their loved ones arriving as visitors.
As the program director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Michigan Criminal Justice Program, wife, mother and liberation activist, I witness firsthand the harm of prisons and advocate for an end to punishment-based systems of control and more humane treatment while on this path to a different system.
The American Friends Service Committee, recently requested that the Michigan Department of Corrections turn off body cameras during strip searches and end strip searches all together. That has not happened yet.
No oversight body has accounted for how much “contraband” is actually discovered and seized during these invasive procedures. Women in prison have always been subjected to daily strip searches, room shake downs, and body pat downs. The presence of body cameras recording these searches is recent[NHC1] .
Many women in prison are relentlessly exposed to the same kinds of traumas that led to their incarceration in the very place they are forced to live day after day. To add cameras that are recording on officer’s authoritarian, uniformed bodies as they strip search a person adds a layer of abuse to the already harmful practice of regular and routine strip searches.
The strip process, whether recorded or not, strips people of dignity and is a form of domination and control. If strip searches were truly about safety, their effectiveness would be tracked. If they were meant as a deterrent, they would occur randomly or only when there is credible suspicion.
Afterall, the visiting room is loaded with security cameras and officers watching all movements. Visitors are patted down, forced through metal detectors, and ordered to take off their shoes and socks for inspection before their visit. Any child wearing a diaper is stripped in the officer’s presence, and teenage girls are sometimes sent away to change if their clothing is deemed “too tight” or “provocative.”
Strip[NHC2] searches and the para-military nature of prison more generally are clear reminders of the prison system’s direct connection to the institution of slavery.
These are dominating and terrorizing histories that were fully codified and condoned by laws and state institutions. Though laws have changed, the sentiments and cultural norms that justified these abuses in the past have not been eradicated. These historical, harmful tactics of power and control continue to influence modern-day policies and attitudes within state institutions.
Every time I visit my wife, who has been subjected to the harmful nature of prison for over 25 years, I experience not only the love I have for my best friend and soulmate and the love she has for me; I also witness the deep love that family members have for the women they are coming to visit and the love the women inside have for them.
Such love is often interrupted by the intrusive and abusive policies of the prison.
People in prison and their loved ones deserve dignity and respect, not suspicion and degradation. Instead of funneling millions of dollars into measures that expand surveillance and control, the Michigan prison system can invest more in educational programs, meaningful activities, and opportunities that foster forgiveness, transformation, critical thinking, and goodwill.
Michigan’s only women’s prison could become a place where Whitmer’s vision of safety and community truly flourishes. With bold, comprehensive action, she could transform a system rooted in punishment and control into one grounded in hope, restoration, and the promise of freedom. Official words in a proclamation mean little if they are not accompanied by decisive efforts to end harm in real time.
Women today—and future generations—deserve to know they are valued, worthy, and powerful, living in safe and thriving communities. It is time to end the inhumane treatment of incarcerated women in Michigan and around the country.
Turning off the cameras during strip searches, ceasing unnecessary strip searches altogether, and prioritizing transformative opportunities are vital first steps on the road to genuine healing and hope.
About the Author: Natalie Holbrook-Combs is the program director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Michigan Criminal Justice Program and a Public Voices Fellow of Transformative Justice through The OpEd Project.