Hiawatha Correctional Facility at Kincheloe is among three prisons and five prison camps to be shut down by the state, in a budget cutting move announced Friday, June 5.

It's too soon to speculate how many of that prison's 208 employees will be left without jobs, said Mike Sibbald, administrative assistant at the facility. Some employees will be transferred to positions at Kinross Correctional Facility, Straits Correctional Facility, Chippewa Correctional Facility, and Newberry Correctional Facility.

About 75% of the employees at the Kincheloe facility live in Chippewa County, he said.

Hiawatha Correctional Facility Warden Jeffery Woods said, "Certainly we will do our best to place as many of the staff that are affected in the area, but there is going to be some layoffs. It's rough news for our staff. It's tough. No area in the state right now is immune from this."

Some prison employees who live in St. Ignace already have been told they will be let go between August and November.

Three of the eight facilities to be closed are in the Upper Peninsula, and all will be closed by November 1. In addition to Hiawatha, which is a minimum security prison, the state will close Muskegon Correctional Facility and Standish Maximum Correctional Facility and Camp Ottawa in Iron River, Camp Cusino in Shingleton, Camp Kitwen in Painesdale, Camp Lehman in Grayling, and Camp White Lake in White Lake.

The prison closings and firings are being made to cut $120 million from the 2010 fiscal year state budget, which has a $1.4 billion deficit. Up to 1,000 corrections positions will be eliminated by the state.

The Department of Corrections will also release non-violent offenders that are beyond their minimum sentence date and are considered a lower security risk. Inmates who are released will be placed under "enhanced parole supervision," Mr. Sibbald said.

Inmates not being released will be transferred to other prisons and camps around the state over the next several months. Mr. Sibbald said it is too soon to know how many of the 1,110 inmates in Kincheloe will be released.

"Exactly when a given facility is going to send its last prisoner out is unknown," he said. "The beds are out there, it's just a matter of having the time to find them," for inmates being transferred.

Hiawatha is ranked the lowest of the five security levels in the prison system.

A statement released June 5 by the state said that the age of the facility, operational costs, needed improvements and renovations, number of inmates, proximity to other correctional facilities, and the need for space in specific security classifications were factors in deciding which facilities to shutdown.

Michigan's prison expense has long been identified as one of the biggest drains on the state budget, exacerbated by a sentencing policy that incarcerates prisoners at 10% above the national average. In 2008, Michigan's corrections budget amounted to 22% of total state expenditures, according to the National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency in the U. S. Department of Justice.