United States · Michigan · Baraga
Baraga Correctional Facility
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Baraga Correctional Facility is a state prison located in Baraga County, Michigan. Rated capacity: 868. Reported population: 787. Security level: Maximum. Data sourced from the HIFLD Prison Boundaries open dataset.
Background
Baraga Correctional Facility (AMF) is a Michigan prison, located in Baraga, for adult male prisoners. While it includes a Level I security facility, it is primarily a maximum security prison.
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
868
Current population
787
Occupancy
91%
Year opened
1993
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 2 Jun 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
1993
Region
Michigan
Security level
Maximum
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
Baraga Correctional Facility is a Level 5 maximum security prison in Michigan. Inmates in segregation, referred to as "the hole" or "the box," face difficult conditions, with one inmate reporting a ten-month stay in such isolation. The facility also employs strict protocols for privileges, including specific physical positioning at cell doors.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Inmates face significant challenges maintaining family contact, with reports of only six phones available for 40 men, often reduced to four due to breakages. Each conversation is time-limited, making it difficult to sustain regular communication with family members.
Known issues
The facility has experienced violence, including a confirmed fight in July 2014 involving a weapons charge. Inmates have reported sexual harassment by staff, specifically a female nurse, leading to disciplinary actions. Additionally, inmates have expressed distress over the disappearance of digital writings stored on tablets.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 0/30
- Oversight reports
- 2/30
- Structural flags
- 5/15
- Death signals
- 5/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
What the score is responding to:
- · 3 oversight reports in the last 5 years
- · Substantial documented known-issues record
- · In-custody-death signal in sources
This facility scores 12. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 10 points above national average.
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Compared to other facilities in United States
7436 peersReports
- marshall-project13 May 2022
hands, palms forward and pressed against the window in my cell door, before I’m released for Sunday morning yard. This is one of many protocols that maximum-security prisoners at Baraga Correctional Facility in Michigan have to follow in order to receive our privileges. But this is all about to change for me. It starts with a COVID-19 test. “Buckley, you gotta get swabbed,” says the C.O. on the
- marshall-project11 Mar 2022
hugging her, but I could see her burying her face into an empty space. She was crying, “Please come home. Please come home. Please come home.” I woke up in my single-man cell at Baraga Correctional Facility soaked with sweat. I had a teary face and a throbbing heart. I called my closest friends, my mother and my grandma and pleaded with them to create a comfortable environment for my daughter
- marshall-project16 Dec 2021
ges on your tablet, laptop or phone without line breaks and drafts. Suddenly, your writing makes no sense. I was devastated, because writing is one of very few freedoms I have at Baraga Correctional Facility in Michigan. Writing is how I make sense of the muddiness within myself and this environment, and I love the ritual of honing my work on the tablet and sharing it with other writers. It’s
- marshall-project1 Jul 2021
being a father. I wonder if it’s possible to be a reliable parent behind the wall of a Level 5 maximum security facility. Staying in contact is one of the biggest challenges. At Baraga Correctional Facility in Michigan — where I am serving 20 years — 40 men have one hour to use six phones. At any time, six phones can become four because two of them are often broken. Each conversation has a
- marshall-project11 Mar 2021
he’s part of the administration.” S egregation time — otherwise known as “the hole,” “the bean,” “the box,” “seg” or “vacy” — is the hardest time to do. I've been in the box at Baraga Correctional Facility, a Level V maximum security prison, for 10 months. I started my sentence here, but I had made it to St. Louis Correctional Facility, which is one security level lower. A fight with another
- marshall-project29 Aug 2019
thing. His voice breaks back in. “Yeah, you ain’t beating that ticket, though,” he says. “Nigga can’t even look out his window no more.” Demetrius Buckley, 34, is incarcerated at Baraga Correctional Facility in Baraga, Michigan, where he is serving a 20- to 32-year sentence for second-degree murder and felony possession of firearms. In an email to The Marshall Project, a Michigan Department of
- marshall-project16 Nov 2017
s for a weapons charge. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) confirmed that the author was involved in a fight in July 2014 at Baraga Correctional Facility that broadly meets the description in this essay. However, the DOC had no report of stabbings during the altercation, and the spokesperson said there were no suicides around this time at the
Data completeness
84%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries
- HIFLD dataset query
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- HIFLD Prison Boundaries — US Department of Homeland Security â HIFLD Open Data
- Wikipedia category â Prisons in Michigan — Wikimedia Foundation
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q20732541)
- Wikipedia
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). Baraga Correctional Facility. Retrieved October 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/baraga-correctional-facility
"Baraga Correctional Facility." World Prisons. Accessed October 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/baraga-correctional-facility.
@misc{worldprisons-baraga-correctional-facilit,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {Baraga Correctional Facility},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/baraga-correctional-facility},
urldate = {2026-10-21}
}