The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Concerns aired over prisoner program
Council hears heated discussion again after meeting last summer
By Dan DuChene, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 1, 2007
Ypsilanti residents voiced concerns at City Council about introducing a prisoner re-entry program into the city's south side. A project that was seemingly snubbed last summer.
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Almost 20 residents of the city's south side gathered to ask why the program is still being considered in their neighborhood. Called the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative, south side citizens had attended an informational meeting about the program last year.
"I thought we put this to bed," local resident Joseph Richardson said.
In August, a community meeting was held at the Greater Shiloh Church of God in Christ.
Dwight Walls, the church's pastor, asked representatives from the re-entry program to make a presentation to the community. Many of the residents who attended voiced their opposition to the program's location.
"God didn't take this to the community," said William Frierson, a local resident. "God does not want to bring these predators here into our neighborhood."
The discussion at the meeting last summer was heated, often breaking down into shouting and arguments.
"There wasn't support to use the building," said Mary King, a representative from the re-entry program, after the meeting last summer.
"We're not going to pursue it."
At the previous meeting, King said the project is a governor's initiative to decrease the amount of former convicts who end up back in jail. Walls said he invited representatives from the Initiative last summer because he would like to lease a building the church owns to the organization so they could use it for housing people in the program. The church owns a vacant building next door. He said it was built 16 years ago as a daycare.
King said if the building were used as housing, 10-12 screened parolees from the Ypsilanti area would live in the structure for no longer than a year. She said former convicts would not be able to live in the building if they had been convicted of arson, a violent offense to a stranger or any type of sexual offense.
Residents of the re-entry program would stay for a minimum of 90 days, and would need employment within 30 days, King said. She said when the parolees are employed, they would start paying rent.
The residence would have a regular police and parole officer presence, King said. She also said a neighborhood oversight group would be formed to keep an eye on the building.
"It is a good program, it just needs a good location," Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schreiber said at the council meeting.
"They really can't go anywhere without community support."
He said the city had not planned the meeting in August, and the issue hadn't been officially discussed by City Council.
Farhan Bhatti, a spokesperson for the Initiative, said he wasn't sure why the issue came up again. He said it might be related to the governor's plan to give early release to 5,000 Michigan prisoners. He said Michigan has higher than average incarceration rates but average crime rates.
"We're warehousing a lot of people and costing the state millions of dollars," he said.
After the council meeting, Walls said, "I think you have a group of people who have their minds made up that they don't want a program like that in our community. They all say, 'we need it, just not here.'
"We understand what the community is saying. But we're saying we need to look at it again."
Walls said he has not met with any city staff within the last few weeks, but he is still considering using the building for former convict housing.
At the council meeting, Ed Koryzno, Ypsilanti's city manager, said Walls had approached him about the program. However, he said the meeting was not recent.
"There are a number of zoning issues with that site, and with the MPRI program in general," Koryzno said.
He said there are no zoning districts to match the purpose of a prisoner re-entry facility.
"It's going to be used for some sort of community project one way or another," Walls said of the building. "I don't know what the next move will be."
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