Prison is meant to serve as a punishment, not a death sentence executed by black mold, abuse and indifference. Even though the state of Michigan was the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1847, in the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility — the state’s only prison exclusively for women — people still suffer in the shadows. Poor conditions inside WHV, such as health and privacy violations, have led to the gradual deterioration of inmates’ health and, in some cases, death.
Michigan needs to do better by ensuring its correctional facilities, especially WHV, are up to code. In April 2025, Survivors Speak, a nonprofit organization, hosted an event at the University of Michigan to advocate for exposing the facility’s wrongdoings and wrongful convictions. Assembling concerned community members, formerly incarcerated women and their families in the basement of the Central Campus Classroom Building, the group listened to WHV inmate Krystal Clark’s anguished voice pour out of a speakerphone, describing the conditions within the facility.
Clark, a 41-year-old mother of four, has been incarcerated since Feb. 9, 2011. She is serving time for armed robbery, assault with intent to do great bodily harm and second-degree home invasion. Clark is currently held at WHV, where poor conditions have severely affected her health.
In the few minutes she had to speak, Clark shared how her health has progressively worsened at WHV, including the development of facial paralysis, a symptom of unchecked black mold, which she has repeatedly voiced in other commentaries. Black mold can cause respiratory system issues and allergic reactions, which, combined with a lack of hygienic practices in a prison environment, can lead to serious health issues. Inmates are also forced to scrub walls with bleach before health inspections and state representative visits, hiding visible mold while the underlying danger remains, a practice condemned by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Mold in the Michigan Department of Corrections prison system is nothing new. Paul Egan, a Detroit Free Press journalist who has visited multiple correctional facilities in Michigan, has said that the mold issue is a longstanding problem that exists in the prison system. The WHV has received almost $500,000 in funding to repair leaky roofs, which are linked to mold growth, yet the problem still persists. When I spoke with him, Egan told me that he was consistently denied access to the WHV to investigate conditions.
This isn’t the first time the facility tried to ignore a health crisis. In 2017, a scabies outbreak began spreading through the facility, due in part to significant overcrowding. Scabies, a contagious skin condition that causes intense itching and rashes, and can spread quickly in close quarters like prisons, lead to serious infections if untreated. Prison officials ignored inmate complaints for more than a year, claiming the women were causing the rashes by hand-washing their clothes, rather than sending them to the prison laundry. The prison only took action once, after 39 inmates tested positive for scabies, finally acknowledging the problem and initiated corrective measures. The delayed response ultimately required a temporary closure of parts of the facility for 24 hours. This is not an isolated failure; it’s part of a pattern of neglect and denial.
Facility violations not only include health-related issues but also serious privacy violations. On May 6, 2025, Flood Law, PLLC filed a $500 million lawsuit on behalf of 20 women against defendants such as the MDOC and its Director, Heidi Washington, Deputy Director Jeremy Bush and Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The suit alleges that between January 2025 and March 2025, around 500 women were illegally recorded naked during the searches, including while taking a shower and using the bathroom. Since then, more than 500 women have reported having their privacy violated by correctional officers at the WHV. Furthermore, the MDOC is facing another lawsuit against its former spokesperson, Chris Gautz, who is alleging sexual harassment and has resigned as a result.
Strip search issues in Michigan correctional facilities date back to at least 2012, when the American Civil Liberties Union called on MDOC to abandon a body cavity search where women had to spread themselves open, often under unsanitary conditions and sometimes in front of other prisoners. It took a coalition of more than 60 prisoners, the ACLU and other health-related organizations writing to MDOC — citing concerns about the procedure’s relation to the fourth and eighth Constitutional amendments — to abolish such strip search procedures.
Of course, it’s easy to think that people in prison deserve whatever negative consequences await them. However, a prison sentence should be intended to provide accountability for one’s actions, not to punish them by creating a personal health crisis. These women should not suffer from chronic illnesses or die from black mold, especially since the United States Constitution bans cruel and unusual punishment. The WHV treatment also violates the Nelson Mandela Rules, developed by the United Nations to safeguard human rights. The Mandela Rules guarantee prisoners the right to humane living conditions. Correctional facilities should not enforce accountability in an unethical manner.
We are not here to relitigate anyone’s crimes. Instead, as students, adults, and taxpayers, we are all responsible for understanding where our taxpayer dollars go, especially when our society’s core foundations are violated. The WHV is just a 20-minute drive from the University; we should demand that a facility meant to serve justice upholds justice within its walls as well.
Chelsea Coon is a junior studying psychology. She can be reached at chelsc@umich.edu.
Maxymilian Stefanski is a junior studying economics, political science and history. He can be reached at maxstef@umich.edu.
