Old jail opened for tours

MACOMB COUNTY — Historically, there have been two ways to go to the county jail: getting arrested or working in corrections.

But as the Macomb County Jail gets ready for its upcoming expansion, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is giving people the opportunity to tour its old maximum security and soon-to-be decommissioned D Block facilities.

“All of this is going to be demoed, but what we want to give is an opportunity to the public to tour it, specifically the D Blocks and maximum security,” Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said. “They’re unique. It's like something you would see in some movies or television, specifically maximum security.”

On May 15-16 from noon to 6 p.m., hourly tours will be given of the old maximum security facility located at 43565 Elizabeth Road in Mount Clemens. 

Active from 1954 to 2020, the facility was used to house inmates separate from the jail’s general population. Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said inmates who were testifying or felt the need for extra protection could be placed in a maximum security cell, while violent inmates were also moved into the wing.

“It could be the most violent, it could be those that are charged with murder, but it's also those that don’t behave in the institution,” Wickersham said. “Those that are attacking our staff, attacking other inmates. If their classification goes up, they would end up in here.”

The maximum security facility has 60 cells arranged in an H-shaped pattern, each cell featuring a shelf for a mattress, a small table to sit at and a combined toilet-sink unit. The jail’s construction is reminiscent of an older approach to correctional facility design, with Hackel likening its iron-barred cells and divided catwalks to the infamous Alcatraz prison island.

Basic amenities are lacking. Ventilation for the longest time was limited to cutouts in the jail’s raised windows, which were so high deputies had to use special equipment to open. Air conditioning was a later addition, with fans being installed for inmates and a wall-mounted air conditioning unit for deputies being installed sometime in the 1990s.

Changes in communication equipment are evident. Phones for visitations are located just behind the watch deputy’s station, but now only mops and brooms are there for would-be inmates to speak with. On the side of the catwalk where cells were located, old phones and more recent video calling equipment show how inmates could communicate with the outside world.

According to Wickersham, the video calling equipment was installed in 2014. Video calls have since become the MCSO’s standard for inmate communications with the outside world while attorney visits, clergy visits and other special exemptions were made for in-person communications.

An open-air recreation yard with several basketball hoops is just east of the maximum security block. Maximum-security inmates were allowed to use it for one hour each day. Hackel, a former Macomb County deputy and sheriff, mentioned how he used to play against inmates from the neighboring D Block cells.

“D Block used to be part of the actual prisoner population,” Hackel said. “What you would see up in that tower was in the D Block. They were people that had committed minor offenses and had to spend some time, so we would literally play basketball out here.”

The maximum security facility was closed in 2020 with Wickersham citing security issues and a shift toward direct supervision of inmates as the reason. Inmates that would be housed there are currently housed within the jail’s tower.

“You’ve got one individual that sits in a cage that works the controls and one deputy that makes the rounds,” Wickersham said. “It just wasn’t enough. It needed more people, so I made that decision.”

D Block is currently housing around 70 inmates, only doing so until renovations to the tower are finished in the fall of 2024. Hackel said plans are being made to allow tours of D Block once the renovations are finished. Both D Block and the old maximum security area, along with the annex and rehabilitation facilities, are slated to be demolished to make way for the new central intake and assessment center project. The four-level, 177,000-square-foot facility aims to better serve inmates with substance abuse and mental health conditions with a whole floor dedicated to mental health treatment. The facility was also designed to capture large amounts of natural light.

As for the old maximum security facility, its days are well numbered. The decommissioned slammer will face demolition this summer with the D Block coming down sometime afterwards. 

People, groups and organizations looking to tour the old jail can schedule a time by calling Macomb County Sheriff's Office Training Division at (586) 307-9311. Accessing the jail will require traversing several staircases and passageways in the jail are tight.