Inmates inside the North Lake Correctional Facility — an immigrant prison in Baldwin — allege conditions are so unsafe that some have been put in prolonged solitary confinement.
They further allege prison guards are segregating the facility by race, and the amount of food that they’ve been getting recently hasn’t been enough, specifically citing a lack of protein.
The facility is a privately-run federal prison that houses immigrants convicted of federal crimes.
GEO Group, the prison operator, and the Bureau of Prisons — which oversees the group — both deny there is a hunger strike in the facility.
However, 10 prisoners within the facility are on the fourth day of a protest, relatives and advocates of the inmates say.
JR Martin with No Detention Centers in Michigan, a statewide immigrant advocacy group, has been in touch with inmates and their relatives.
“This is just not a facility in which they feel safe,” they say. “And they don’t believe the GEO Group is able to protect anyone’s safety.”