Michigan lawmakers from both parties expressed alarm Tuesday over growing allegations of toxic mold, medical neglect, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and systemic failures at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility.
Following years of lawsuits, internal documents, and whistleblower complaints, the Michigan House Oversight Committee held a hearing at the Capitol in Lansing and listened to jaw-dropping testimony from colleagues, former prison staff, and the state’s legislative ombudsman.
“Regardless of whether these individuals are incarcerated or not, they are human beings,” Rep. Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay, who chaired the hearing, said. “It really drives home that these are people. They are not just a commodity.”
State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, who has led calls for oversight after examining conditions at the prison and visited it unannounced earlier this month, presented photos and medical records of incarcerated women who had been denied treatment. One of them is Krystal Clark, who says she has spent years suffering from exposure to black mold.
Holding up images showing what she described as mold growth in Clark’s ears and swelling in her arm, Pohutsky detailed years of grievances, delayed treatment, and gaps in medication.
“This is a systemic issue, and it requires our attention,” she said.
Pohutsky also recounted the “extremely tragic death” of 54-year-old Jennifer Jean Wallace, who died Nov. 16, 2025, of sepsis from a haemophilus infection. Wallace’s mother, Susan, said she struggled for days to get information about her daughter’s deteriorating condition.
Her daughter’s last words to her were, “Mom, I don’t deserve this.”
It turns out, Wallace received the wrong medication and was delayed medical care.
Despite all of the problems, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been silent on the allegations and is refusing to discuss them.
“We continue to see a troubling pattern in failures in the lack of accountability in the Whitmer administration,” Rep. Jason Woolford, R-Howell, said. “We need to have the director of this department in here to answer these questions.”
Lawmakers repeatedly questioned how a department with a $2.2 billion annual budget could allow such conditions to persist.
“The money is there, so what gives? That’s what I’m reeling with right now. The money is there,” Rep. Josh Shriver, R-Oxford, said.
Rep. Reggie Miller, D-Van Buren Township, was more blunt.
“We treat animals better than what we have treated these individuals — plain and simple,” he said.
Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, suggested the Michigan Department of Corrections is violating the U.S. Constitution.
“It’s completely unacceptable that people are being ignored for so long in these institutions,” Wegela said. “In this country, we certainly have a problem with mass incarceration, but we’re supposed to have the Eighth Amendment that protects against cruel and unusual imprisonment, and this seems cruel and unusual.”
Two former employees testified about retaliation, cultural dysfunction, and easy access to contraband.
Laresha Thornton, a former teacher’s aide at the prison, described an environment in which employees and inmates are routinely retaliated against for blowing the whistle.
“When I first started complaining, I was transferred to Jackson,” Thornton said. “When an employee complains about what’s going on, they become a target.”
Thornton said she became sick from mold, causing her intestines to swell. She also testified that a supervisor sexually harassed her at a birthday party at a casino, prompting prison officials to monitor her.
“If you were a bully, you were great,” Thornton said. “But if you wanted to help, you became a target.”
She said mold is only cleaned when visitors from Lansing are expected and that women are given “gloves, sometimes a mask, and a little bit of bleach” before inspections.
Andi Allen, a certified drug and alcohol counselor who said she was fired after raising concerns, testified that employees were involved in smuggling drugs and ignoring overdoses.
“There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to do what’s right for people,” Allen said. “These women need help. People say Michigan doesn’t have a death sentence, but there is at Women’s Huron Valley.”
Former employees said corrections officers made bets on whether a woman would commit suicide. When one woman hanged herself with a bra, an employee won a bet and celebrated the death, according to former employees. In another case, an employee was angry when a woman didn’t kill herself because he had bet she would.
Keith Barber, the legislative ombudsman, confirmed longstanding ventilation and mold problems and acknowledged cultural issues within the prison system.
“We need to talk about the elephant in the room,” Barber said. “There are employees involved in [bringing drugs to the prison], probably to a much larger scale than we’d like to believe.”
He said his office has 12 staff members overseeing roughly 33,000 incarcerated people statewide and could use significantly more resources.
Lawmakers demanded independent inspections, audits, and testimony from Michigan Department of Corrections Director Heidi Washington and Huron Valley Correctional Facility Warden Jeremy Howard.
“There are decades of issues at the prison,” Miller said, demanding testimony from the warden. “This affects so many lives. People are dying in these prisons.”
Whitmer’s office hasn’t responded to Metro Times’s questions about the prison for more than a year.
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