An allegedly unconstitutional policy by a downstate prison may significantly cost Alger County taxpayers in the aftermath of one of its most heartbreaking events and potentially create a ripple effect that would negatively impact dozens of Upper Peninsula citizens in their right to representation.
Mark Dobias and Tony Ruiz, the court-appointed attorneys for Jason David Sadowski, have not been able to establish reliable and timely communication with their client due to a policy established by the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) at the St. Louis Correctional Facility, located about an hour north of Lansing.
According to an email sent by St. Louis Correctional Facility Litigation Coordinator Mary Jo Houlden, the prison will no longer set up phone calls between attorneys and prisoners. This limits all prisoners to a limited amount of phones to contact their attorneys on the same devices that prisoners use to contact families and other non-secured lines, while also limiting them to just 20 minute calls.
“It is the prisoner’s responsibility to schedule calls with the attorney directly as the prisoner knows their schedule and when they have access to the phone,” Houlden wrote in an email to attorneys with clients at the prison.
Houlden suggested that attorneys could visit in person or use the JPay system to send messages to clients. However, both are expensive and JPay messages are not confidential. Confidentiality between attorneys and their clients is protected under the Fifth Amendment, meaning that further legal proceedings may violate Sadowski’s civil rights.
“There’s just a handful of phones in the yard and you don’t know who is going to get their first,” Sadowski said during the hearing on Wednesday, March 22. “We’re not allowed to bring anything with us to the yard, where the phones are located, so I can’t reference anything when I’m talking to them.”
Ruiz and Sadowski also said that the St. Louis Correctional Facility would not allow Ruiz’s work cell phone to be considered a confidential line. It was unclear during the hearing if that was a policy limited to the specific prison or MDOC as a whole, but Ruiz said that it impacted his ability to travel to various courthouses across the rural Central and Eastern Upper Peninsula.
Alger County Prosecutor Rob Steinhoff questioned whether or not in-person visits were still allowed at the March 22 hearing. According to Houlson’s email, they are still allowed, but the prison is 606 miles away. An in-person visit would cost the Alger County Indigent Defense Office nearly $400 just in mileage.
In-person visits or forcing Dobias and Ruiz to sit at a desk to be available for phone calls that may or may not happen would also limit the attorneys’ ability to serve other clients. The attorneys are based out Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette respectively and serve clients in at least eight district and circuit courts. With a lack of indigent defense attorneys available, that could delay court proceedings for other defendants, running the risk of Sixth Amendment violations. If violations were to occur, it would cost Alger, or any other county impacted, money to redo any proceedings to protect the civil rights of those involved with the case as victim or defendant. In smaller cases, costs per hearing are only a couple hundred dollars. Larger trials can reach in the tens of thousands of dollars, significantly impacting the annual budgets of numerous county departments.
Brian Rahilly, 11th Circuit Court judge, has previously forced the MDOC to bring prisoners at various MDOC facilities to the Alger County Courthouse so they can speak with their attorneys. By using writs — a written order from the court — prisoners have been brought to all four courthouses that form the 11th Circuit Court jurisdiction since Rahilly was elected based on where the alleged crime was committed.
Rahilly said that the policies must preserve the civil rights of those incarcerated to guarantee fair trials.
“This is troubling. To offer just a 20-minute phone call is unacceptable,” he said. “In other cases we’ve had to writ people out to meet with their attorneys. If that’s what we have to do, that’s what we have to do.”
Sadowski attended the hearing via teleconferencing while Dobias and Ruiz were in person at the Alger County Courthouse. He was in court for a hearing regarding sentencing definitions and guidelines, but Rahilly ruled that the sentencing will remain from 50-75 years, based on MDOC guidelines. Sadowski is appealing his conviction for one count of open murder, the only murder to be investigated in the City of Munising’s history.
A phone message was left with Houlden asking for clarification on the policy, but was not returned to the Munising Beacon.
