| Prison Name: | Detroit House of Correction |
| Location: | Plymouth Township, Michigan |
| Status: | Demolished 2017 |
| Opened: | 1861 |
| Closed: | December 2004 |
| Managed By: | Michigan Department of Corrections |
The Detroit House of Correction (DeHoCo), opened in 1861, was owned and run by the City of Detroit but originally accepted prisoners from throughout the state including women. This was the first State operated prison for female felons. The state renovated the woman's division into the new Phoenix facility. The Detroit House of Correction was transferred to the state in 1986, renamed to Western Wayne Correctional Facility, and became a women's facility for the rest of its tenure. It closed in December 2004 and all inmates and staff were transferred to the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti.
The first Detroit House of Correction opened in 1861 near Detroit's Eastern Market.[1]
In 1919, the city of Detroit purchased approximately in Plymouth Township and Northville Township for approximately an acre to house a new Detroit House of Correction. A prison camp, with inmates sleeping in tents, was opened in 1920. A permanent maximum security facility was completed in 1930.[2]
The city of Detroit sold a portion of the complex to the Michigan Department of Corrections in 1979 for, and the remainder of the facility to the department in 1986 for . The facility was then renamed to Western Wayne Correctional Facility and became a women's facility for the rest of its tenure. The 1930 building closed and sat abandoned since.
In the late 1980s, the warden of the facility took bribes in return for favors from inmates.[3]
The facility closed in December 2004 and all inmates and staff were transferred to the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti.
In January 2002, Kojaian Management Corporation purchased the property for .
Plymouth Township acquired of the property in September 2011 for . The land was available for purchase by the government due to unpaid taxes.[4] [5]
In May 2016, the City of Detroit, is in ownership of 190 acres of the land Plymouth Township acquired. The courts agreed that under Michigan land law, the ownership of the property still resides with the City of Detroit. The other 133 acres, of the 323 Plymouth Township acquired, was correctly sold, by Detroit, in 2006, to a private developer, who did not pay their land taxes, and forfeited the land to the township. Just to the east of this property, the City of Detroit, owns 45 acres of the original site, where dilapidated prison structures still stood[6] until they were demolished in the spring of 2017.[7]
Notable inmates during the prison's history included: