Detroit House of Correction

Location	Plymouth Township, Michigan
Status	Demolished 2017
Opened	1861
Closed	December 2004
Managed by	Michigan Department of Corrections

The Detroit House of Correction (DeHoCo), opened in 1861, was owned and run by the City of Detroit but originally accepted prisoners from throughout the state including women. This was the first State operated prison for female felons. The state renovated the woman's division into the new Phoenix facility. The Detroit House of Correction was transferred to the state in 1986, renamed to Western Wayne Correctional Facility, and became a women's facility for the rest of its tenure. It closed in December 2004 and all inmates and staff were transferred to the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti.

History

The first Detroit House of Correction opened in 1861 near Detroit's Eastern Market. ^[1]

In 1919, the city of Detroit purchased approximately 1,000 acres (400 ha) in Plymouth Township and Northville Township for approximately US$30 (equivalent to $527.22 in 2023) an acre to house a new Detroit House of Correction. A prison camp, with inmates sleeping in tents, was opened in 1920. A permanent US$2,500,000 (equivalent to $45,597,610 in 2023) maximum security facility was completed in 1930. ^{[1] [2]}

The city of Detroit sold a portion of the complex to the Michigan Department of Corrections in 1979 for US$1,600,000 (equivalent to $6,716,919 in 2023), and the remainder of the facility to the department in 1986 for US$6,700,000 (equivalent to $18,623,315 in 2023). The facility was then renamed to Western Wayne Correctional Facility and became a women's facility for the rest of its tenure. ^[1] The 1930 building closed and sat abandoned since. ^[2]

In the late 1980s, the warden of the facility took bribes in return for favors from inmates. ^[3]

The facility closed in December 2004 and all inmates and staff were transferred to the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti.^{[ citation needed]}

In January 2002, Kojaian Management Corporation purchased the property for US$50,000,000 (equivalent to $84,699,352 in 2023). ^[1]

Detroit ownership

Plymouth Township acquired 323 acres (131 ha) of the property in September 2011 for US$606,150 (equivalent to $820,993 in 2023). The land was available for purchase by the government due to unpaid taxes. ^{[4] [5]}

In May 2016, the City of Detroit, is in ownership of 190 acres of the land Plymouth Township acquired. The courts^{[ which?]} agreed that under Michigan land law,^{[ citation needed]} the ownership of the property still resides with the City of Detroit.^{[ citation needed]} The other 133 acres, of the 323 Plymouth Township acquired, was correctly sold, by Detroit, in 2006, to a private developer, who did not pay their land taxes, and forfeited the land to the township. Just to the east of this property, the City of Detroit, owns 45 acres of the original site, where dilapidated prison structures still stood ^[6] until they were demolished in the spring of 2017. ^[7]

• 
  Taken a couple months before demolition, this was the main building.
• 
  The newer buildings in the rear of the complex housed women prisoners, and were in better shape than the others at the time of demolition.

Notable inmates

Notable inmates during the prison's history included:

• Euphemia Mondich ^[8]
• Curtis Sliwa ^[9]
• Belle Starr ^{[1] [10]}
• David King Udall ^[1]

See also

• List of Michigan state prisons

References

42°23′35.4″N 83°31′15.7″W / 42.393167°N 83.521028°W / 42.393167; -83.521028