Page 6-Saturday May 30, 1981-The Michigan Daily
State frees
more inmates
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LANSING, Mich. (UPI)-About 20
inmates were granted early parole
yesterday as the state moved to cure a
chronic overcrowding problem which
may have contributed to a series of
riots which rocked its prisons in the last
two weeks.
The prisoners were- freed from
minimum security units at the three
prisons rocked by the recent rioting:
Southern Michigan Prison at Jackson,
the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia and
the Marquette Branch Prison..
The roughly 37 prisoners released
Thursday from half-way houses in
several Michigan communities were
the first to be freed under the law.
INMATES WERE reported mostly
quiet at the three prisons where rioting
occurred last Friday and Tuesday by
the worst disturbances to hit Michigan
prisons in 30 years.
Most remained locked in their cells as
a security precaution, although some
were being allowed out in small groups
for showers and there were limited
visits.
A special task force named by
Milliken to study the rioting is to hold
its first meeting Monday., The panel,
chaired by former Michigan Supreme
Court Justice Lawrence Lindemer, has
30 days in which to submit its
preliminary report.
JUST PRIOR to last week's rioting,
Milliken issued an emergency
declaration cutting the minimum terms
of most inmates by 90 days, making
about 900 eligible for immediate parole.
Gail Light, a spokeswoman for the
prison system, said those released run
the gamut of offenses from assault to
property crimes except for first-degree
murder. Most were probably in their
late 20s.
Michigan's overcrowding law
requires sentence reductions when the
prison population exceeds capacity for
30 consecutive days.
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