Michigan taxpayers saved more than $30 million per year under a deal reached Wednesday to keep a prison boot camp open near Chelsea.
Closing the camp would have added costs to the state budget because boot camp prisoners would have had to serve longer sentences in higher-security prisons despite recent data suggesting boot camp prisoners were rehabilitated as well as full-prison inmates.
Under the deal reached Wednesday night, the boot camp will remain open but only to first-time offenders. A Senate amendment banned second-time felons from entering the boot camp program.
All in all, it’s an excellent compromise that saves money and protects public safety.
Thanks go to Representative Alma Wheeler-Smith and Senators Wayne Kuipers and Alan Cropsey for coming to this agreement.
The Center for Michigan testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week to keep the camp open. Boot camp critics said the camp didn’t work. But a coalition of business and other interest groups, including the Center, questioned why the state would shutter a boot camp that’s far less expensive than mainline prisons and, according to the latest research, seems as effective as prisons at rehabilitating inmates.
Here’s our testimony from this week.
Here’s the corrections reform coalition letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.
Here’s this month’s evaluation of the camp in question.
