The Michigan Daily-Soturday, May 22, 1982-Page 5 CAN IT HAPPEN AGAIN? Jackson State: Ayear later By United Press International JACKSON, Mich.-The physical evidence of violence and destruction are gone, but the mental images of the long Memorial Day weekend of 1981, when three Michigan penitentiaries ex- ploded, remain with those inside and out. They wait and they watch for signs it could happen again. Prisons, being prisons, are always volatile, says war- den Dale Foltz of giant Southern Michigan Prison at Jackson. Foltz said he does not expect trouble of last May's magnitude this year, but he did predict a summer of repeated minor incidents. THE LAST YEAR has brought positive changes to Michigan's prisons. The central yard at Jackson, the scene of many a confrontation, has been sub- divided by towering fences topped with sharp concertina wire. One prison ob- server saidsome inmates feel the fen- ces convey a "concentration camp feeling." Prison guards say they are more secure with the new arrangement. "I feel better about working here," said a lour-year prison employee who Fighting for improvements is akin to "dragging a 1, 000 pound weight across the desert."' -David Van Koerering,, Michigan Corrections Organization official asked not to be identified. But other than some small cosmetic changes, the improvements have not been as extensive as administrators, guards and inmates would like, nor enough to satisfy the recommendations' of special committees and task forces which studies the riots and their after- math. MICHIGAN'S CONTINUING finan- cial slump has meant most of the money needed for the bulk of the changes has not materialized. Gov. William Milliken's prison riot task for- ce recommended the hiring of more guards and in November the governor reiterated the pledge to hire 300 new corrections officers. State financial problems, instead, have caused further deterioration in the ranks of those assigned to contralthe state's nearly 13,500 inmates including the early May layoff of 58 guards. Eight more layoffs are pending. Overcrowding, which has plagued Michigan's prison system for years, remains a problem. An emergency law which trees inmates to ease crowded conditions has been invoked for a second time. Ironically, the emergency law was used for the first time just days before the 1982 riots began. OTHER NAGGING troubles remain. Buildings at Ionia, many a century old, continue to crumble with no money in sight for replacements. Jackson remains too large to control properly, but the $100 million price tag of sub- dividing it into three smaller prisons is also out of the state's financial reach. Fighting for improvements is akin to "dragging a 1,000 pound weight across the desert," said David VanKoevering, a Michigan Corrections Organization official. Despite continued problems, some root causes of the two disturbances at Jackson and the chain-reaction riots at the Michigan Reformatory at Ionia and the Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper Peninsula have been reduced. PRISON ADMINISTRATORS and guards, represented by MCO, agree they are getting along much better than they did a year ago. "Communication has improved double over last year," VanKoevering said. State Corrections Director Perry Johnson said he has never seen his guards and other staff "looking so professional . . I've never seen the prison yard and the housing units look so good as the last time I visited" at Jackson. THE PROBLEMS began at Jackson on Friday, May 22, of last year, the eve of the Memorial Day holiday. Trouble had been brewing at the world's largest walled prison for weeks, with guards San MICHIG AN. Page 9 Reagan adopts security policy aimed at Soviets WASHINGTON (UPI)- President lReagan has approved a tough new global military, political and diplomatic strategy aimed at shrinking the Soviet empire and persuading the Iremlin to turn its attention to "butter, not guns," his top security adviser said yesterday. William Clark, assistant for national security affairs, outlined the strategy in a major address at the Center for Strategic and Internatiqnal Studies at Georgetown University. "IT IS OUR fondest hope that with an active yet prudent national security policy, we might one day convince the. leadership of the Soviet Union to turn their attention inward, to seek the legitimacy that only comes from the consent of the governed, and thus to ad- dress the hopes and dreams of their own people," Clark said. A senior White House official said Reagan approved an eight-page national security document that "un- dertakes a campaign aimed at internal reform in the Soviet Union and shrinkage of the Soviet empire." The official said Reagan believes "the response will result in fundamen- tally different East-West relations by the end of this decade." The goal, he said, is to compel the Soviets to focus on "butter, not guns" and to "get the Soviets to pay attention to their citizenry and not export terrorism around the world." MSU reports highest university crime rate By CHARLES THOMSON With wire reports A new study reveals Michigan State University logged more reported crimes. last year than any other state collegA surveyed. The review, however, didnot include either The University of Michigan or Wayne State University, and authorities warn against comparing crime statistics between the various schools. According to the Michigan Uniform Crime Report, MSU had 4,665 crimes in 1981, significantly more than the other 11 institutions in the study, but down by about 120 ,crimes from the previous year. THE UNIVERSITY was not included in the study because it does not have its own police force. Major Ferman Badgley of the MSU Department of Public Safety said the University crime rate cannot be com- pared to those of other campuses, because no other institution in the-study See MSU, Page 11 Peepingy fireman. This local burglar makes a clever entrance into an Oakland St. apartmentby posing as a paramedic. Actually, a fireman is helping put out a small kitchen blaze.