State Roundup

Quarter of state's prisoners need mental health care LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- About a quarter of Michigan's 43,000 state prisoners are mentally ill, and new Michigan Corrections Director Dan Heyns says he wants to shift responsibility for their treatment from his department to other agencies. "Corrections has had a kind of mission creep over the years," Heyns told The Detroit News for a story published online Sunday. "We're doing mental health stuff, we're educators and job trainers, you name it. "We need to bring the Michigan Corrections Department back to its original mission, which is corrections." Heyns, a former Jackson County sheriff, took over the state's prison system in June. He and corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said the department would like to get away from responsibility for providing mental health treatment, education, job training, housing and transportation for parolees. Mental health has become a particular burden, Heyns said. "I've got institutions that are just packed with people who are very, very seriously mentally ill," he said. "These aren't stress cases. I can't exactly provide a therapeutic environment. We're struggling with that." Heyns said he doesn't expect he can hand off the mentally ill prisoners he has now, but he wants to work with sheriffs, prosecutors and other local officials to try to ensure fewer mentally ill people come to prison. Heyns said he understands such a change would be hard, given factors such as the closure of mental health hospitals in the 1990s. Like him, local mental health officials are "under the gun to reduce costs," Heyns said. Michael Vizena, executive director of the Michigan Association of Community Mental Health Boards, said the state's 46 boards have programs to identify the seriously mentally ill and "work with the local judicial systems to develop treatment plans to divert these persons from incarceration if appropriate." "Resources are always a challenge," especially for those who do not have Medicaid, he said. Vizena said his members would like to work with Heyns and others at the state level to make improvements. As sheriff, Heyns said he worked with the local community college to provide educational services and he might be able to use a similar model in his new job. Mount Pleasant CMU goes to court over faculty work stoppage MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) -- Central Michigan University has headed to court, trying to force tenure system faculty members who walked off the job back into classrooms. University officials filed the injunction Monday in Isabella County. Members of the Central Michigan University Faculty Association are on the picket line as part of what they're calling a work stoppage on the first day of fall classes. Central Michigan's administration says it's illegal to strike, and the university is heading to court to contest the action by the 600-member association. Central Michigan says classes taught by fixed-term faculty and graduate assistants will take place as scheduled on Monday. Students were asked to report to classes. The professors have been without a contract since June 30. Toledo Jury deliberating in 1967 killing of 14-year-old girl TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Jurors in Ohio have begun deliberating on whether a now 75-year-old man killed a schoolgirl back in 1967. Investigators think Robert Bowman snatched the girl as she made her way home from school in Toledo and held her captive in his basement for days. Bowman faces life in prison if convicted of murder in the killing of 14-year-old Eileen Adams. He has pleaded not guilty. The case went to the jury at midday on Monday. Prosecutors said Bowman should be convicted based on DNA evidence and testimony from his ex-wife that she saw the girl in the basement. Defense attorneys argued that the evidence is weak, saying the DNA isn't solid because four decades have passed since the girl's body was found in southern Michigan. Lansing Voters remain disenchanted with Governor Snyder LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A poll indicates Michigan voters remain disenchanted with the job being done by Gov. Rick Snyder. In the survey released Monday by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA, 33 percent gave the GOP governor a positive job rating while 62 percent gave him a negative rating and 5 percent were undecided. The results were virtually unchanged from EPIC-MRA's July poll. Forty-two percent of those polled last week said they have a favorable opinion of the governor, while the same percentage have an unfavorable opinion. Thirty-one percent say the state is headed in the right direction, while 54 percent say it's on the wrong track and 15 percent are undecided, similar to July's findings. The Aug. 13-16 poll of 600 likely voters had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Published: Tue, Aug 23, 2011