Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislative leaders asked the Council of State Governments to review Michigan's criminal justice system and recommend cost savings. Those savings could be realized by reducing Michigan's prison population from nearly 48,500 inmates down to around 43,500, the report said.
Suggested legislation endorsed by key Republican and Democratic lawmakers would require the release of inmates who have served 120 percent of their minimum sentence, unless the parole board determines they pose a "very high risk" of committing new crimes.
The new law would not apply to current inmates nor to felons serving a maximum term of life for offenses including murder, rape, kidnapping, armed robbery or carjacking.
In other words, the worst offenders would stay behind bars where they should be and only a small amount (5,000 out of 48,500) would be eligible for early release. Mostly, the prosecutors just want to sound tough so they win their next election and don't really seem to mind that Michigan is once again facing a budget shortfall that could wipe out the types of programs that are built to actually prevent crime. In fact, the plan actually beefs up those programs. According to the Freep article on the study:
Also included in the group’s potential remedies are beefed-up law enforcement and crime lab capabilities, and increased training and job placement for offenders and disconnected young people.So, now we get the hysterical prison industrial complex saying that the "early" release (even though they will have served 120% of the minimum sentence) of these prisoners will jeopardize public safety and those same people will offer no remedies in fixing the state budget or the economy other than casting blame at the people who have in fact been making the tough decisions. The answer to public safety isn't to lock everyone up. The answer to patching yet another budget hole isn't passing tax cuts and building more prisons. The answer isn't to listen to a bunch of politicians who can make a name for themselves by sounding tough and taking the easy path to popularity. We need adults who can quit grandstanding and picking on society's bogeyman to pad their resumés and win reelection.
This all reminds me of a quote from the quotable H.L. Mencken:
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
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This is a great post. I hope it generates the kind of attention it deserves. I am too far out of the mainstream to study the particulars, but the time is ripe to tackle this monster. Incarceration has become an industry, and calling the system “Corrections” is a travesty. Unfortunately, you have some readers who will starve if the trough is emptied. While the subject of state prisons is worthy of attention by our state government, the problem really gets solved by starting at the county and municipal levels, as is being done in Barry County. Non-violent offenders should never actually reach the state level in the first place. Nobody who is not a threat to society should be incarcerated. The real key to this proposed change is shifting some of the budget into more rehabilitation. It costs much less to rehab than it does to incarcerate, and the product of the effort is a positive one instead of hardening offenders into problem criminals. Our tragic economy offers an opportunity to slash away at fat that would be sacred in better times, and the state prison system is lard of the worst kind.
Since our legislators continue to criminalize most every little societal infraction, we will continue to add to the numbers incarcerated. Grillo's post is 110% correct. Where does Calley stand on this? And, if he is going to mouth the partisan directive of opposition, what is his solution? He can no longer hide under the cloak of "freshman". Besides, with his purported 10 years experience in the banking industry (so says the Banner), he should be able to solve all of our financial problems.
"The answer to patching yet another budget hole isn't passing tax cuts and building more prisons"
Passing tax cuts would help. But we also need the governor to seriously cut waste: Getting rid of the new state police post project and also requiring best-value contracts (repealing "prevailing wage" requirements) would save a lot.
And everyone here is so right of the huge savings through prison reform. There's probably a lot more to be gained than the modest reforms the Gov. has proposed.
le grillo said: "Non-violent offenders should never actually reach the state level in the first place. Nobody who is not a threat to society should be incarcerated"
A minor modification to that. I think there is something to be said for giving some major white-collar criminals some hard time. The Madoff's and Boesky's. However, the ones that would get this would not be a huge number, so it would probably not impact cost much.
Nothing would be harder time than requiring the white-collar criminals to dissolve all of their assets and perform community service at minimum wage for a typical 10-hour day like most of their victims. Punishment is just another word for revenge, and that gets Biblical. It serves no purpose.
The more important issue is the subject of rehabilitation. This work requires a higher skill level than the typical state prison warehouse attendant but in this case probably doesn't pay much better.
El Grillo. Sounds like a deal.
I would encourage every reader of this thread to make a point of visiting the poorly-named Drug Court in the Barry County Courthouse for a glimpse of enlightened management of incarceration and rehabilitation. I guarantee that afterwards you will be a believer.
To be fair, I should also add that you will not be able to vote for a bigger and more expensive jail.
Grillo: "Punishment is just another word for revenge, and that gets Biblical. It serves no purpose."
Come to think of it, there is a place for this, as a deterrent. A big place, in fact. Can you imagine the murder and armed robbery rate if you got rid of all the punishments and replaced them with nothing but non-punishing rehab? It would probably end up encouraging these crimes.
That is total nonsense. Fear of incarceration is not a deterrent. Ask anybody in law enforcement and they will tell you that no offender expects to get caught.
If you think that rehab is "non-punishing" (assuming that you buy into the method of teaching that employs punishment as a valuable tool) then you have never fasted, stopped smoking, or been asked to hold your tongue.
Additionally comical is the logic that anybody would consider abandoning incarceration of offenders who remain a threat to society. Incarceration, however, is not the same as the punishment doled out by the royalty in the Dark Ages. There is no good reason to incarcerate anybody in conditions that are not respectful and healthy.
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