Officials Restrict Access To Day Rooms At Michigan Women's Prison

LANSING (AP) - Michigan's Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility has begun limiting inmate access to prison day rooms this week.

The Detroit Free Press reports that several inmates and their family members tell the newspaper that due to overcrowding, inmates have been placed on "21-hour lockdowns," beginning Monday.

State Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz has confirmed that access to the day rooms - which contain grooming areas, kiosks with links to e-mail and other amenities - is now limited to three hours per prisoner, per day. But Gautz denies talk that inmates are restricted to their cells when they are not in the day rooms.

He also says the policy changes are not due to overcrowding.

Officials have said the population at the prison has risen about 16 percent from 1,900 in 2011 to about 2,200 this past October.