The U.S. Marshals Service is stepping in to move inmates from two jails in downtown Detroit. That's because of faulty conditions -- leaky roofs, plugged pipes and overheating -- that officials say have plagued the jails for years.
The Marshals are moving 200 inmates from the Andrew Baird Detention Facility on the corner of Clinton and St. Antoine and Wayne County Jail Division II on Clinton and Beaubien. The jails were subject to an audit last month. The Detroit Free Press reports the conditions in the jails did not meet the auditors' standards:
Dirt and debris had accumulated in the corners of the holding cells. A 12-inch hole had formed around a sprinkler head in one bathroom, some sinks lack hot and cold water, and slots to pass food through were rusting, according to the inspection report.
Inmates will be moved from the facilities in Detroit to the county-owned William Dickerson Detention Facility in Hamtramck.
U.S. Marshals are still expected to release a full report.
The decision to move these inmates comes shortly after Wayne County announced it would halt production on a new downtown jail, which has cost the county an estimated $154.5 million.
-Sarah Kerson, Michigan Radio Newsroom
