Katherine Phillips--Amber Alert, 4 month infant, Michigan

[Lady Cop]

their little game may be thwarted by this cool warden.

MLive

IONIA, MI – Baby Kate’s mother, Ariel Courtland, probably won’t be allowed to visit Sean Phillips in prison even after they marry, although that’s the reason she’s reportedly been giving for their planned marriage.

After Courtland gets a valid marriage license, the warden of the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia, where Phillips is lodged, is required to allow the marriage, according to John Cordell, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

But that doesn’t give Courtland a right to visit Phillips, Cordell said. In fact, he said, the warden “likely will” continue to forbid visits between the two.

“Her visiting application was restricted by the warden on the grounds of order and security and the likelihood that any visitation by this woman would not assist in the positive rehabilitation of the prisoner,” Cordell said Wednesday.
Phillips is serving a sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison after a jury convicted him of unlawfully imprisoning the couple’s then 4 ½-month-old baby, Katherine Phillips. The baby disappeared June 29, 2011, after Phillips drove away from Courtland’s Ludington home with Baby Kate in his car. The child has never been found.

Cordell said Courtland being a victim in the Baby Kate case has nothing to do with the warden’s refusal to let her visit Phillips. Victims are allowed to visit prisoners all the time, he said.

“But people who may assault the prisoner, or the prisoner may assault them, or we think there may be some emergent issues as a result of the meeting, visitation may be denied because of good order and security,” Cordell said. “We need to maintain safety in our visiting room.

“Beyond that, we do take the rehabiltation into account,” Cordell said. “Being married or having a license issued by the state of Michigan isn’t going to change those conditions.”

Cordell said the prison warden can’t forbid a marriage between an inmate and an outsider, but wardens can determine the schedule and conditions. Typically marriages take place in a prison’s visiting room and are conducted by the prison chaplain, sometimes with outside witnesses allowed, Cordell said.

The Ionia County Clerk's office confirmed Tuesday that Courtland applied on Monday for a license to marry Phillips. The license will be issued Thursday and the couple then has 30 days in which to marry.

On another issue, Cordell said the corrections department has no information on whether a letter reported by news media appearing to be from Phillips, in which Phillips apparently confessed to killing Baby Kate, actually was from the inmate.

“We can’t and we don’t on a regular basis check outgoing mail,” Cordell said.


MOOOOOOOOO