Status Open Warden Willie Smith State Michigan Opened 1987 | Security class Level II and V City Ionia Zip code 48846 | |
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Managed by Michigan Department of Corrections Street address 1576 W. Bluewater Highway District Michigan Department Of Corrections School District Headquarters Ionia, Michigan, United States | ||
Ionia correctional facility top 8 facts
The Ionia Correctional Facility (ICF), also known as "I-Max" because of its maximum security housing units is a state prison located in Ionia, Michigan, USA.
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The prison was opened in 1987 and consists of five maximum security level V housing units and two medium security level II housing units. It is one of four maximum security men's prison facilities in Michigan, along with Marquette Branch Prison in Marquette, Alger Correctional Facility in Munising, and Baraga Correctional Facility in Baraga. (The Standish Maximum Correctional Facility in Standish was a fifth maximum security men's prison until its closure in 2009 eliminating 604 Level V security beds.) Although the Ionia Correctional Facility was once the state's only supermax prison, Michigan downgraded the facility from a level VI (or supermax) to a level V maximum security prison in 2004.
Three of the level V housing units are designated 'general population'. The remaining two are used for administrative segregation (a unit in which prisoners are confined to their cells for breaking prison rules), temporary segregation, detention, and secure outpatient treatment. The level II facility consists of a 280-bed building separated into two units. Level II prisoners have access to a variety of recreational activities and are allowed to work in the prison and for Michigan State Industries, a factory that employs low-risk prisoners.
On Monday, February 3, 2014, Michael David Elliot, convicted and given multiple life term for the 1993 first-degree murders of two men and two women, and the arson of their residence, over drug money, escaped without help, and carjacked a woman's car, stopping for gas in Elkhart County (the Jeep turned up in Shipshewana, Indiana, in LaGrange County, near the Michigan border). He had enough fuel to travel about 100 miles. He was housed in the level 2 section.