Family Members Demand Investigation of Michigan Prison After Deaths of 5 Women

“At the end of the day, I didn’t even recognize my own child,” said Izora Clark, whose daughter Krystal has become a focal point of demands for reform at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, Michigan’s only women’s prison.

Clark, along with Krystal’s daughter and grandchildren, joined advocates and family members of other women incarcerated at Women’s Huron Valley outside the Michigan State Capitol and Michigan Department of Corrections headquarters on Friday afternoon to demand change for their loved ones.

Izora Clark said her daughter has mold in her hair and her ears, allegations also raised by Krystal Clark’s attorneys in an emergency motion to have her removed from the prison, citing what they described as her medical deterioration from toxic mold exposure. Krystal Clark was transferred to Duane Waters Health Center in Jackson after the motion was filed.

At a Michigan House Oversight Committee hearing in February, state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) told Krystal’s story as well, stating that along with visible mold growing in her ears, she has developed other health issues, including a facial droop and severe swelling in her arms, while incarcerated.

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesperson Jennie Riehle said that Clark’s attorneys’ allegations “are not supported by the medical evidence or facts known to the department. Ms. Clark is not experiencing any emergent medical condition that warrants transfer from the facility.”

The Department has also released findings of independent environmental testing done by a private contractor, which concluded the facility did not have dangerous systemic black or toxic mold conditions.

Krystal’s mother said she won’t be happy until her daughter walks out of prison, safely and alive — and that she never wanted her daughter to end up in another Michigan Department of Corrections facility.

Five women have died at Women’s Huron Valley since mid-May — most recently Dasie Forbes, who died while in palliative care, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Because of Forbes’ medical condition, her death was deemed “expected” by the department, and as such, no investigation into her death will be conducted. The county medical examiner similarly declined to conduct an autopsy in her death.

“The death of Ms. Forbes was expected, unlike the unexpected death of Ms. Jones and the other women who passed that were incarcerated at WHV this year,” Riehle said. “Ms. Forbes had been diagnosed with multiple chronic, complex, life-limiting illnesses. As a result, she elected to enter palliative care while still at the facility in Feb. 2026.”

But the fact that so many women have died this year — Women’s Huron Valley has seen six deaths per year in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and five in 2022, according to statistics provided by MDOC — raises concerns about the care that prisoners at the facility are receiving.

“If you commit a crime and they put you somewhere to be punished, let that person do their time and come home. That’s the way I feel,” Izora Clark said. “Don’t sit up here and treat them like they’re not worth living for. Because at the end of the day, they’re not your family, but they do have people that love them too.”

The families of multiple women who have died at Women’s Huron Valley shared the stories of their loved ones, and chanted alongside organizers to demand that the same thing does not happen to more women.

“She walked into the facility and she didn’t walk out,” said Don Howard, whose daughter Khaira died days before she was scheduled to be released on parole. “These ladies are walking in, but they’re not walking out.”

Ashley Hoath, who died at the facility in June, was well-loved at WHV before her death, which was ruled a suicide by the county medical examiner’s office, according to her daughter Anala.

Standing outside the MDOC headquarters as a number of employees left for the day, organizers chanted at them “Shame,” and “Blood on your hands.” But their main demands are towards MDOC Director Heidi Washington, as well as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Organizers of the protest, which was led by the Washtenaw General Defense Committee, demanded Krystal Clark’s release from prison, as well as the immediate release of all severely ill and medically frail women inside the facility.

Other elected officials, including U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, have also pressed Whitmer to provide more answers about the conditions inside the prison and why so many women have died in such a short span of time.