Ionia Correctional Facility

The Ionia Correctional Facility (ICF), also known as "I-Max" because of its maximum security housing units[1] is a state prison located in Ionia, Michigan, USA.

I-Max was opened in 1986 and consists of five maximum security level V housing units and two medium security level II housing units. It is one of five maximum security men's prison facilities in Michigan, along with Marquette Branch Prison in Marquette, Alger Correctional Facility in Munising, Baraga Correctional Facility in Baraga, and Standish Maximum Correctional Facility in Standish.(this prison was closed in 2009 eliminating 604 Level five security beds) Although the Ionia Correctional Facility was once the state's only supermax prison, Michigan downgraded the facility from a level VI (or supermax) to a level V maximum security prison in 2004.[2]

Three of the level V housing units are designated 'general population'. The remaining two are used for administrative segregation (a unit in which prisoners are confined to their cells for breaking prison rules), temporary segregation, detention, and secure outpatient treatment. The level II facility consists of a 280-bed building separated into two units. Level II prisoners have access to a variety of recreational activities and are allowed to work in the prison and for Michigan State Industries, a factory that employs low-risk prisoners.[3]

On Monday, February 3, 2014, Michael David Elliot, convicted and given multiple life term for the 1993 first-degree murders of two men and two women, and the arson of their residence, over drug money, escaped without help, and carjacked a woman's car, stopping for gas in Elkhart County (the Jeep turned up in Shipshewana, Indiana, in LaGrange County, near the Michigan border). He has enough fuel to travel about 100 miles.[4] He was housed in the level 2 section.

References

  1. ↑ State Performance Audit Ionia Correctional Facilities Department of Corrections, 1997
  2. ↑ Corrections Compendium 2005 Report Table 5 (Reclassification)
  3. ↑ Department of Corrections Ionia Correctional Facility Region 2 - Ionia County
  4. ↑ U.S. News (3 January 2015). "Killer who escaped Michigan prison captured in Indiana". NBC News.

External links

Coordinates: 42°58′50″N 85°06′11″W / 42.98056°N 85.10306°W