The state of Michigan has agreed to pay $860,000 to settle a lawsuit over the death of a prisoner who killed herself. Judge Robert Cleland signed off on the deal earlier this month between the Corrections Department and Janika Edmond's family. Edmond killed herself at the prison for women, near Ann Arbor, in 2015.
Prison staff members were accused of failing to properly respond to a threat of suicide. Edmond yelled for a suicide-prevention vest but didn't get one. Dianna Callahan of Flint pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to six months in jail. She was accused of saying, "somebody owes me lunch," after Edmond asked for the vest.