Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette The Houghton County Board says the 1963 jail needs to be replaced. Many taxpayers are not ready to buy it.

HOUGHTON – Some members of the public voiced their opinions on a new jail to the Houghton County Board at a special meeting last week. Some comments directed at strategies employed by the Board to advance the proposal.

County resident Kevin Maki called it politics as usual.

“Politics never change. So, here we are, on a work day at 10 o’ clock in the morning, for a special meeting about a topic that’ already been voted down three times,” he said. “So, the will of the people has been ignored, then you have a special election at an inconvenient time so no one shows up.”

Maki objected to the Board purchasing a church that has been vacant for years for $1.2 million and tens of thousands more on plans that have not been approved.

“It’s just so upsetting as a taxpayer,” Maki said.

He went on to say that the population (of Houghton County) has not increased significantly, adding that the population now is lower than it was in 1980.

According the U.S. Census Bureau, the county’s population in 1960 was 35,564. In 1980, the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, showed the population in Houghton County was 35,446, while the U.S. Census places the number at 37,872. According to Michigan Demographics (michigan-demographics.com), in 2023, the population of the county was reported by at 37,599.

Maki then questioned the priorities of the County Board. “We have a 34% poverty rate in the county and you want to spend $36 million on a jail?”

John Slayton, a 25-year county resident, said in all those years, there has been a jail problem and a need for a jail. “There’s a joke with jails and prisons,” Slayton said, “that if you build them, they come. Nobody went to Orlando until they built Disney World.”

Slayton said the larger the jail, the more it gets used, adding, “you need to fill them.” He suggested alternatives to a new jail, including the use of tethers for non-violent offenders.

“Keep them at home, then you don’t have to feed them,” he said, “you don’t have to do upkeep, you don’t have to do that.”

Slayton concurred with Maki’s comments, saying the county purchased a church, which now looks to be unsuitable.

“You don’t know how much it’s going to cost, on budget, to where you can proceed onto the next mystery,” Slayton commented, “so in my opinion, the simple approach (is) fix one problem before you do the next, plan your plan, do your plan, don’t apply the Whack-a-Mole approach, because that’s what it looks like. I think the public is here to provide a little adult supervision.”

Jim Quinlan, who said he has a long history with the Sheriff’s Department, including a warden at Camp Kitwin, expressed his thoughts, saying he has visited nearly every county jail throughout the state. “There is not a more dangerous place to work and to house staff and inmates than in the Houghton County Jail,” he said. “We’ve been kicking this can down the road for so long, we put the temporary solution, the work camp up at the airport, and that worked for a while, but that wasn’t a solution.”

“But, we’re sitting on a time bomb. It’s just a matter of time before some federal judge or department comes in and closes us down. We have had a great working relationship with the Department of Corrections – I worked with them for 35 years – while they have tried to work with Houghton County to keep this … situation that we’re in. We can kick this can down the road until we get a lawsuit that we can’t afford.”