LANSING (AP) — State officials are unsure whether to label a prison uprising last year in the Upper Peninsula as a "riot."
The Detroit Free Press reports that inmates were involved in a disturbance at Kinross Correctional Facility in September 2016. Inmates say the uprising was in response to low prison wages, low-quality food and other complaints.
Prison officials insist the disturbance wasn't a riot. Corrections officers say they didn't lose control of the prison. But an official labeled it a riot last month when rejecting a former prisoner's compensation claim for personal items that disappeared during the disturbance.
A Corrections Department spokesman said the official mistakenly used that label.
The department's concept of a riot differs from state criminal law, which only requires participation by "three or more individuals."
