When Ethan Crumbley’s prison sentence was handed down for the 2021 Oxford High School shooting, Chris Dankovich was already inside — living in the same Michigan prison since he was 15, the same age as Crumbley, in the same county where the shooting took place. He wrote what no journalist could: a firsthand account of exactly what life in Ethan Crumbley’s prison will look like. It remains one of the most-read pieces we’ve ever published.
I may know what Ethan Crumbley’s prison life is like better than anyone, anywhere.
Almost two decades ago, in very different circumstances, I made the biggest mistake of my life at the same age (15 years old) and in the same county as him. For almost seventeen years, I have lived in the Michigan prison he will eventually come to, in the prison system where he will most likely spend the rest of his life.
I was on the prison yard when I heard the police sirens and saw the helicopters flying overhead. I came inside to see the news about the shooting just a handful of miles away, at a high school I attended basketball games at as a kid, in a community where people I care about live and where I spent time growing up. My heart goes out to the victims and all those who were there. This is for those who may wonder, or find peace in knowing, what forms justice will take for the young person who tore that community apart.
Held in Isolation
Fifteen-year-old Ethan Crumbley is currently being held in isolation in the Oakland County Jail. By state and federal law, while in jail he must be separated from all adults by sight and sound, meaning he will be placed in solitary confinement for his entire time there. Due to the nature of his crime and statements about self-harm made public, he will additionally be on suicide watch, placed in either an indestructible nylon-and-velcro suit (in which he was pictured at his arraignment) or a paper suit for clothing, and will be allowed nothing in his cell but a mattress and bedding. He will have no one to talk to except on an occasional visit from the jail’s psychologist or his lawyer (his parents are being charged with crimes of their own, so no visits from them). He will sit in a cell with a mattress on the floor, day in and day out, completely alone with nothing to do and no distractions, until his court proceedings are complete — possibly years.
[I lived these very conditions for weeks, not years. I had been charged as an adult but was not deemed a threat to children and was mainly housed in the secure juvenile facility. The utter nothingness of those weeks was something worse than my time in adult prison, and I was not even under suicide watch. The room was white, there were no windows, no clock, and the lights never changed. He likely will not know what day it is.]
His Only Possible Defense
The public side of everything involving him will be organized through the actions of his lawyer. As a minor being charged as an adult, he will have a court-appointed attorney unless someone else hires one, or a lawyer (likely seeking publicity) volunteers. Since the facts of this case are not in dispute, there is only one possible defense available to him: Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI). If this plea is entered on his behalf, a court order will be given for him to undergo a psychological evaluation. He will be sent, for an afternoon or a handful of days, to Michigan’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti, where he will be evaluated by psychological professionals. Should he refuse to speak to them, he will automatically be deemed sane by law. Should he speak to them, he will be viewed with suspicion, as is everyone who goes there.
Why the Insanity Defense Won’t Work
While Ethan Crumbley is almost certainly mentally ill, he will not be found insane by the staff psychologists, and will not be found as such in court. To succeed, he would have to be found, under Michigan law, to have either (1) been unable to understand the difference between right and wrong, or (2) been unable to conform his actions to that understanding. Previous to the offense, he reportedly made statements and took actions that — if validated — demonstrate that he knew killing people at his school was wrong, and the preplanning shows he was able to conform his actions. He will be fighting against a skilled prosecutor with a trove of evidence against him. Should he appear in front of a jury, that jury would be pulled from a very conservative base in a county where he is hated and covered daily by the press. Oakland County has one of the highest conviction rates in the state and regularly issues some of the highest sentences in the nation. He would be an ant standing in a footstep.
What Will Likely Happen Instead
It will likely never come to that. Should Ethan Crumbley go to trial, he potentially faces years in the hellish form of solitary confinement he is currently in, and he will break. The chances of his only available defense succeeding are essentially nonexistent. Whether to free himself from solitary or for other reasons, Crumbley will almost certainly plead guilty to all charges — if not immediately, then after six months or a year. At that point, he will receive his sentence. In Michigan, juveniles have available to them a minimum sentence of anywhere between 25 to 40 years in prison for first-degree murder, or a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. In this extreme circumstance, there is almost no judge who would give him anything other than life without the possibility of parole — but even if a judge did sympathize with him, he faces multiple charges carrying multiple sentences.
He will spend the rest of his life in prison.
State Prison Intake
All prisoners from Michigan’s lower peninsula will go through the Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, Michigan — the intake prison known in the system as “Quarantine.” Here the steel bars clank on the same mechanisms as Alcatraz, in the same setup and style of architecture. The officers are mean. The soul of the place is mean. Men regularly attempt suicide by jumping off the high tiers. He will be separated from the adults in a cell that is literally a cage. After nearly twenty years in prison, I still have nightmares about that place.
Until He Turns 18: Thumb Correctional Facility
If he is sentenced before his 18th birthday, he will then be transferred to the “Youthful Offenders” cellblock at Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer — walking distance from the high school where he killed four innocent kids. There, he will have the option of receiving psychological treatment from mental health professionals used to dealing specifically with underage prisoners. He may be eligible to take GED classes in a prison school, where he will be subject to random searches and pat-downs to and from each class. His peers will no longer be middle-class rural children but adult-criminal teens raised in the toughest parts of Detroit, Flint, and Pontiac. Instead of football players and honor roll students, he will attend class surrounded by Bloods and Crips. This is where I grew up.
At 18: Transfer to Maximum Security
Ethan Crumbley will likely be transferred on his 18th birthday to a maximum-security prison, as he will then be too old to be housed with those under that age. Prisoners serving long sentences — or life — in Michigan must serve three years before being eligible to be housed at a lower security level. In a maximum-security prison, he will be housed with the most hardened criminals the state has to offer: professional tough guys who use violence as a way of life and who are skilled at it, with or without weapons. Or, if his psychological issues prove serious enough, he will live at Woodland Correctional Facility’s psychological unit, where the state’s most severely disturbed prisoners reside.
His Future in Adult Prison
The remainder of Ethan Crumbley’s life after sentencing will be very, very difficult. Life in prison is hard for anyone, but his time will be harder than almost any other prisoner will face. He will likely be targeted because of his crimes and notoriety. His particular crime will earn him no respect in prison, where a kid who ambushed other unarmed children with a gun will find himself in an environment where the greatest status goes to those who fearlessly extort, rob, or impose their will on other grown men.
Apart from his crime, because of the way he looks he will be targeted by gangs, sexual predators, and men looking to extort him. He will have to learn to fight without a weapon, or be willing to inform on others in order to be placed in protective custody. Prison is already a lonely place, but there he will live the loneliest kind of life possible.
How He Will Spend His Days
Depending on which specific prison he finds himself in, he will spend most of his time in a cramped cell shared with another man, or warehoused in an open-air “pole-barn” cellblock with rows of prison beds in the open. If he makes enough money at a prison job — which averages about $0.20 an hour — he may eventually be able to purchase a small television or radio. He will be able to read books from the prison library while sitting on a four-inch stuffed mattress on a steel bunk. If he stays out of trouble, a prison yard with a track and some weight equipment will be available to him. On the illicit side, if he meets connected people and hustles, he may occasionally be able to obtain drugs to momentarily take his mind away from where he is — until he finds himself still in prison, forever. If he works hard, or someone sends him money, he will be able to buy chips or honey buns from commissary. Someday, when his parents are released from jail, they may choose to visit him. And these will be the only joys he will ever know again.
Don’t miss “Chris Dankovich’s Dad on Raising a Son — in Prison”
He will think about what he did every moment of every day, except when he is distracted by prison politics, grown men attempting to hurt him, occasional snacks of highly-processed foods, or stories of other people’s lives. Coming to prison at fifteen, I know from experience that he will have a harder time speaking, interacting, and communicating than those who come to prison as adults. I was able to find ways to overcome this; he may or may not. Either way, he will have little in common with any grown man — or anybody at all.
The Rest of His Life
And his life will play out like this, until he dies. He will never know freedom. He will never know what it’s like to be in love. He will never know what it is like to really live.
What will justice look like for Ethan Crumbley? He will live to know the pain he caused others.
Dedicated to Hana St. Juliana, Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin, and Justin Shilling, as well as those injured in the shooting at Oxford High School.
Don’t Miss Justin Welch’s story: I Have New Evidence in Alexis Patterson’s Disappearance And No One Cares
(Dedicated to Hana St. Juliana, Tate Myre, Madisyn Baldwin, Justin Shilling, as well as those injured in the recent shooting at Oxford High School)
Chris Dankovich is serving 25-37 years in Michigan for killing his mother when he was 15 years old.
Chris Dankovich #595904
Thumb Corr Facility
3225 John Conley Dr
Lapeer, MI 48446
7 Comments
Seems barbaric to place a teenage boy in a maximum prison, no? He should be transferred out of Michigan to be honest. It’s too bad you did not feel differently knowing he is mentally ill and did ask for help. He could use some guidance navigating through the system rather than get further traumatized. I feel for him He ahs bee failed at every turn.
I have a brother in prison. He’s been in for years, and he will be there for the rest of his life. He is the black sheep of my family, and I am the only one who acknowledges his existence. I send him money every month, accept his collect phone calls, write him letters, order prescription glasses for him, have books mailed to him, pray for him… anything I can do. But nothing can assuage the fear and sadness I feel about his situation. The crime is terrible, and the punishment is just… and he’s my brother. I love him. I want good things for him.
Thank you for writing this article and demonstrating that all hope is not lost.