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Oaks Correctional Facility (ECF)

Oaks Correctional Facility  

Manistee County  
Manistee County 

Warden Les Parish
1500 Caberfae Highway
Manistee, MI 49660 

Current jobs 
TELEPHONE: (231) 723-8272
OPENED: 1992
AGE LIMIT: Males, 18 and older
SECURITY LEVEL: II/IV 

General 

Oaks Correctional Facility is comprised of eleven main buildings containing approximately 262,673 square feet of floor space.  Prisoners reside in seven main buildings that include one segregation unit, five general population housing units, two Level II units and three Level IV units.  Two of our level IV units are set up as an ALTERNATIVE to SEGREGATION (START Program).  Prisoners that are diagnosed with a serious mental illness are placed in one of these units in lieu of segregation and they are provided an opportunity to progress through this START program.  The mission of the START program is “To provide a secure general population alternative to administrative segregation while providing programming and other structured and unstructured out of cell activities based upon the prisoner’s positive adjustment, with the goal of reintegration into traditional general population”, and there is one specialized housing unit that houses prisoners whose protections needs cannot be met in a traditional general population setting and do not require placement in administrative segregation based on their conduct.
Mental Health Services

Mental health services are provided by a combination of MDOC staff and psychiatric services provided by a private contractor (Corizon Health).  An Outpatient Mental Health Team (OPMHT) manages prisoners requiring mental health services.  Mental Health Services (MHS) provides case management/ medication services to prisoners with a serious mental illness/ severe mental disorder.  Their team is comprised of a Unit Chief (Psychologist), 5 staff Psychologists and 1 Psychiatrist (Corizon Health), and a Unit Secretary.  MHS also provides programming to prisoners participating in the START program while housed in these two specialized housing units.  START programming consists of 32 sessions (2hrs/week for 16 weeks) of Solution Focused, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

Programming 

The Oaks offers academic programs that include Adult Basic Education and General Education Development completion, Pre-Release programming and Introduction to Computers.  The average school enrollment is 170 prisoners.  Reentry Programming is offered in the form of  Violence Prevention Programming (VPP), Thinking for Change, and Substance Abuse Education-Phase 1 and 2.  Leisure activities include participation in athletics, religious services, self-help programs (Cage Your Rage, Victim Awareness, Anger Management, Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, Stress Management, Pre-Release, Getting the Buzz on Business, Own Your Own Business, Communications, Men Are Parents Too, Thinking Matters, Job Success, Basic Photography, Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University) hobby craft and legal/general library. 

In addition to traditional programming, the Oaks was also chosen by the Leader Dog for the Blind organization to train dogs for their program.  Prisoners are screened and are provided training to deliver this training program to puppies received at the facility.  Once the dog has completed their initial phase of the training at the prison, they are then graduated to the next level of training if they pass testing.  Dogs that are not chosen to continue with Leader dog for the Blind are re-purposed to other specialized training centers.  Some become companion dogs for Veterans with PTSD, some are chosen as drug sniffing or bomb sniffing dogs. 


Security 

The perimeter security includes a buffer fence, double chain link fences, razor-ribbon wire, electronic detection systems, an armed patrol vehicle and gun towers.