Fifth Michigan prisoner since 2020 dies after falling over rail from upper gallery

JACKSON, Mich. — A man died after falling from an upper gallery at a Michigan prison, the fifth inmate since 2020 to die from falling or jumping at two prisons where railings are only a few feet high.

Ervin Robinson II died on Saturday after a fall at the Egeler prison in Jackson County, spokesman Lucas Verran of the Corrections Department said Wednesday.

"The matter is still under investigation," Verran told The Associated Press.

Five inmates have died at Egeler or Parnall, another prison in the area, under similar circumstances since 2020, the Detroit Free Press reported. Four deaths were classified as suicides.

Railings on upper floors at the two prisons are 38 inches (96.5 centimeters) high, the newspaper reported.

In 2023, a prison employee sent a complaint about the railings to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who referred it to workplace safety regulators, the Free Press said.

“No hazard exists,” a Corrections Department official said in a letter to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which closed the file without a visit.

Robinson, 42, was sentenced to up to eight years in prison in 2020 for failure to pay child support in Kent County. He was released twice on parole but was returned to prison because of parole violations, Verran said.

State Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, said she was told it would cost millions of dollars to raise the height of the prison railings.

“It’s definitely something I’m tracking and something I’m concerned about,” she said of prison safety.