Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Michigan

confiscation of private property

A Michigan state prison is in the middle of a small town in Michigan. My husband and I pulled off the road in the town to take a picture of the prison wire.

Before I had taken a picture, a prison worker stopped me and said no pictures were allowed. I noted that there were no signs stating that fact, and he said it was probably on the sign in front of the prison. I told him I had not taken a picture yet. He called his supervisor and had me wait by his pickup until the supervisor arrived on foot.

When the supervisor came, he said he had to confiscate the film. Since it was a throw-away camera, I had to give him the camera with 23 unexposed pictures left on it. He told me he would send us the exposed pictures by mail. We exchanged addresses and he gave me the warden's phone number. There was no promise of being reimbursed for the unexposed pictures, even though we asked about that.

We were also told that we were trespassing on prison property, which was hard to tell; there was no line demarcating the ditch and where prison property began. When we left, we checked the sign and there was nothing on it about prohibiting photography. My question is, is this legal? Can prisons take private property like that, with no proof?

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