Inside Michigan's prison for the most severely mentally ill

Inmates at Woodland Center Correctional Center, where Michigan's most mentally ill prisoners are treated, are locked in their cells between therapy and activity sessions.

Inmates at Woodland Center Correctional Facility are allowed to congregate a few times per day in a day room outside their cells. The day room in this 10-inmate unit is furnished with metal stools and has a small TV mounted near the ceiling. Correctional officers keep an eye on inmates through the windows.

The central area in each 20-inmate pod at Woodland Center Correctional Facility is used for therapy sessions. In the foreground, a safety chair resembliing a school desk is equipped with a chain and handcuff. Behind it, a stainless steel cage is funished with a bench for an inmate to sit on.

Warden Jodi DeAngelo said this metal cage, called a therapeutic module, at Woodland Center Correctional Facility is used to safely restrain uncooperative inmates during therapy sessions.

Common areas include a "treatment mall" with rooms for arts and crafts, music therapy and other activities. This is Game Room D.

Woodland Center employs two music therapists, two occupational therapists and four recreational therapists.

Prisoners can use a large, well-equipped library with computers, and Eastern Michigan University conducts a theater program for inmates who'd like to try acting.

"They use theater as a way for them to identify and work through emotion," Warden Jodi DeAngelo said about inmates who choose to participate in the theater program at Woodland Center Correctional Facility.

Sayings and inmates' artwork are displayed on a bulletin board in Music Room F, where inmates receive treatment that involves therapeutic games and music.

"It's different at other prisons than here," said inmate Christopher Goike at  Woodland Center. "You don’t get to work with your caseworker as much (at other prisons).

Security is highly visible at Woodland Center Correctional Facility. There is a unit for inmates with developmental disorders, as well as about 50 "permanent" residents who have late-stage dementia or mental illness so severe they can't be managed in a normal prison.

A security guard walks toward the treatment mall at the Woodland Center Correctional Facility. Each pod is staffed by two to three officers, as well as a nurse and two therapists who have offices off the activity space.

Inmate Damone Signil soon will be paroled directly from the maximum security Woodland Center to his parents' home, after spending roughly 20 years either in prison or a mental hospital. Home visits while incarcerated are prohibited under Michigan law.

Inmate Chris Kennie works with therapy dog Sadie at Woodland Center.

Inmates play basketball in the secure yard at Woodland Center.