More than 300 MDOC staff including 179 Emergency Response Team (ERT) members from all 21 ERT teams were joined by more than 20 law enforcement agencies from around the state for the 2006 Combined Emergency Services tactical search and recovery exercise in Ionia.

The Michigan Reformatory in Ionia was the setting for the collaborative prison training exercise designed to provide hands-on training for staff along with an opportunity to work in conjunction with law enforcement officials.

“This exercise is one more effort by the department to fulfill its mission of keeping the public safe,” said Director Patricia Caruso, who was on hand to observe. “We want to be a good neighbor as well and this training scenario can only make us better prepared to meet any potential challenges in the community.”

In the training scenario, 12 maximum security inmates (played by DOC and MSP employees) were involved in a motor vehicle crash resulting in all 12 prisoners escaping into the woods and fields throughout the Ionia area.  The participants in the exercise, the special weapons and tactics teams and several search groups had one assignment—track and recover all 12 prisoners.

The eight-hour exercise tested the limits of the searchers as they covered marshes, woods, fields and residences wearing full gear and carrying weapons loaded with fake ammunition. The teams of participants were confronted by a variety of scenarios. 

A gunman was holed up in a hunting lodge. A prisoner with a weapon was barricaded in a house and there were several health care challenges including multiple corrections staff who were injured in the initial bus accident.

MDOC personnel teams were assisted in the search by MSP Canine, Aviation (helicopter), DNR Marine Patrol and Eaton County mounted division.

Also on hand were local public safety officials and fire department personnel, sheriff department deputies, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division who sent their personnel to participate in this exercise.

“Participation has doubled this year,” said Bellamy Creek  Sergeant Christine Wakefield,  coordinator of the event. “Last year was such a success that we wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity to gauge the effectiveness of a unified command concept and evaluate our communications process.”

More than 21 square acres were covered including state recreation land which was cordoned off for the exercise.

“This was a history-making exercise for the department as we successfully operated a Unifed Command Center using the National Incident Management System structure for command and control in our training,” said Ed Mize, MDOC Emergency Services Manager.

Captain James Miller of the Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility acted as the Chief of Operations for this year’s scenario. Efforts were coordinated from a command center and a debriefing was held to conclude the exercise.
The department will ask each participating agency for a written critique of the exercise.

“With written critiques from all the agencies involved we can evaluate the areas of concern and structure future training to increase our effectiveness,” said Mize. “In addition, this allows us to move forward in building a seamless operational team with other participating agencies in the event of a large scale emergency.”

Michigan Department of Corrections FYI 061506