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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v MARKEITHIS THOMAS-JAMES SMITH, Defendant-Appellant.

UNPUBLISHED July 28, 2011

No. 300772 Tuscola Circuit Court LC No. 09-011108-FH

Before: M. J. KELLY, P.J., and O'CONNELL and SERVITTO, JJ. PER CURIAM. In this delayed appeal by leave granted, defendant Markeithis Thomas-James Smith appeals his plea-based conviction of conspiracy to furnish a cellular telephone or other wireless communication device to a prisoner at a correctional facility. See MCL 750.157a; MCL 800.283a. The trial court sentenced Smith as a habitual offender, see MCL 769.10, to serve six months to seven and one-half years in prison for his conviction. On appeal, Smith argues that his statements at his plea proceeding were insufficient to serve as the factual basis for his guilty plea because the persons housed at the facility at issue were not prisoners and the facility itself was not a correctional facility. In addition, he argues that the trial court erred in sentencing him. We conclude that the facility at issue was a correctional facility and that its inmates were prisoners as those terms are defined under MCL 800.281a(e) and (g). Accordingly, Smith's statements were sufficient to establish the factual basis for his plea-based conviction. We also conclude that there were no sentencing errors that warrant relief. For these reasons, we affirm. I. BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Prior to the events at issue, Smith was apparently on parole after having been convicted of larceny from a person. At the plea hearing in this case, Smith stated that he violated his parole and was incarcerated at the Wayne County Jail. He was then transferred to a facility that the Department of Corrections (the Department) operates in Tuscola County (the Tuscola Facility).

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The inmates at the Tuscola Facility are all part of the Department's Residential Re-Entry Program (the Program). According to the Department's policy statement for the Program, see Mich Dep't of Corrections Policy Directive 06.03.104,1 the Program is intended to provide parolees with special services to help them "transition into the community." The Program is administered at the Tuscola Facility and a facility in Lake County. Id. at

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