The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 15-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, May 27, 1981
Sixteen Pages
Prison
riots
worsen
JACKSON (UPI)-Teargas-equipped
guards quelled a second disturbance at
the world's largest walled prison
yesterday night, containing 1,000
rioting inmates, but a new uprising
broke out at a state prison 450 miles
away.
The latest violence broke out about
8:15 p.m. at the Marquette Branch
prison in the Upper Peninsula, just as
inmates at Jackson's Southern
Michigan Prison were returning to
their cells after leaving 11 fire-scarred
buildings and a score of minor injuries.
AT MARQUETTE, at least four
guards were reported injured, none
seriously.
It was the third Michigan prison to be
hit by a disturbance in five days. The
Michigan Reformatory at Ionia, hit by
bloody rioting last Friday after the first
disturbance at Jackson, remained
quiet.
The Jackson rioting left at least 20
persons taken to area hospitals-most
suffering from smoke inhalation. They
included eight guards, five firefighters
and seven inmates.
ABOUT 150-200 maximum-security
inmates at Marquette-which houses
820 of the most dangerous convicts in
the state penal system-created a
disturbance in the prison yard and
refused to return to their cells.
Three "significant" fires were set in
the prison's industry building,
vocational school and inmate store,
said administrative assistant Paul
Maynard.
One guard was trapped briefly by
prisoners in a cellblock but was
rescued. Michigan State Police
troopers and Marquette firefighters
were at the scene to help restore order.
AT JACKSON, which spans 54 acres
and houses 5,600 men, six modular
housing units, a school building and
food preparation area were destroyed.
A seventh housing unit and two per-
manent cellblocks also suffered fire
damage.
The 1,000 inmates fled the main-
prison yard and entered cellblocks af-
ter they were warned, via bullhorns,
that they would be gassed if they failed
to move inside.
Many carried luggage and pulled
large wagons, loaded with their
See MORE, Page 10
Daily Photo by PAUL ENGSTROO
The thrill of victory
The Michigan baseball team celebrates its 4-0 victory over Eastern
Michigan in the title game of the NCAA Mideast Regional Monday at Fisher
Stadium before over 4,700 fans. After losing their first game, the Wolverines
came up through the loser's bracket, winning four games in a row to earn a
trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska for the second straight
year. See story, page 16.
Medical program in doubt
By SUSAN McCREIGHT
The future of a federally funded
scholarship program which encouraged
medical students to set up practice in
rural or inner city areas following their
graduation is in question now that the
Reagan administration has generated
apparent momentum in Congress to
trim the federal budget.
The National Health Service Corps
grants full scholarships to medical
students who agree to practice in areas
short of doctors for at least the first two
years after their graduation.
WHILE THE program waits for next
year's funds to be appropriated by
Congress, the future of the scholarship
fundwill be determined by the success or
failure of two congressional bills-one
that would continue funding for the
program at current level and one that
would freeze the scholarships, allowing
grants to no more than 2,500 medical
students. Meanwhile, applications and
new scholarships that the Corps nor-
Grants spur praetie
in rural, eity areas
mally processes routinely by the
thousands have been frozen pending the
outcome of Congressional debates.
The uncertainty about the scholar-
ship's future worries some of the
program's administrators and scholar-
ship recipients who say that the unique
scholarship has made the first
significant step toward achieving an
equitable distribution of doctors and an
equitable distribution of minorities in
medical school.
"The Corps is the best tool we have
right now for ammeliorating some of
the inequities in this country," said Dr.
Allen Noonan, director of NHSC
scholarships in Maryland. According to
Noonan, there are two primary
inequities in the medical profession
that the scholarships help offset.
FIRST, eliminating the scholarship
program would reduce the accessibility
of medical school to many minority and
lower-income students, Noonan said.
Thirty-nine percent of the 232 students
who received NHSC scholarships last
year are minorities, compared to only
12 percent in the general medical
profession. Thirty-six students at the
University's medical school are par-
ticipants in the NHSC program.
The other inequity, according to
Noonan, is a serious maldistribution of
doctors. Physicians find it difficult to
make a profitable practice in rural and
inner city areas where there are fewer
than one physician per 3,000 persons in
a population which is scattered over a
large geographical area.
Doctors get lower reimbursement
rates in rural areas because the people
are often self-employed and have no
employer to offer insurance benefits.
Doctors in these areas are required to
accept medicare and medicaid, and of-
ten must charge on a sliding fee scale.
Also, the problems of isolation and
inaccessibility to consulting specialists
confront the rural physician.
THE PROBLEM of isolation is partly
resolved if the NHSC physicians stay in
the area and attract other physicians.
But, if the physician leaves, the area
becomes a shortage area again and a
new graduate is sent to the site. About
40 percent of the practioners coming
from federally-funded projects such as
NHSC stay beyond their service
See MEDICAL, Page 9