Ask anyone in or around the state Capitol for the lowest hanging fruit to reform Michigan government and you’re very likely to hear a one-word answer: “corrections.” The state prison system is eating massive, unsustainable holes in the state budget and Republicans and Democrats alike know they’ve got to do something about it.
Earlier this fall, Detroit Renaissance offered up suggestions on how to save $445 million in prison expenses. Likewise, the Detroit Regional Chamber and other business groups have repeatedly called on the state to reign in prison spending.
Within the next few weeks, the Justice Center at the Council of State Governments may begin to melt the policy freeze-out between Republicans who want operations reforms have so far refused to deal on sentencing guidelines and Democrats who want sentencing guidelines but have so far refused to rile unions by dealing on operations reforms like privatization.
The Justice Center is due to make recommendations for “a more effective and affordable crime-fighting strategy.”
As we all wait for the thaw, here are a few Corrections insights to warm your passions, no matter which party’s approach you care to take:
Michigan’s crime rate decreased 11 percent between 1996 and 2006, but that’s only one-third the decrease seen nationally, according to the Justice Center, and we exceed the national violent crime rate.
One out of every three state employees works for the Department of Corrections.
Michigan’s prison incarceration rate is high because the length of time in prison in Michigan is above the national average. Michigan’s length of stay is 4.3 years — that’s twice Ohio’s rate and more than three times the rate in Illinois, according to the Justice Center.
In 2007, a quarter of all state prisoners (11,822 to be exact) were incarcerated for non-violent crimes, according to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.
Our prisons could easily be more crowded. Only 25 percent of felony court dispositions resulted in prison stays in 2006 — down from more than 40 percent in the 1970s, according to Michigan Department of Corrections data.
Prison costs have soared much faster than the prison population in recent years, according to Senate Fiscal Agency data. The prison population has hovered within a couple thousand inmates of 50,000 for the entire decade. Yet the overall prison budget has skyrocketed from $1.4 billion in 2001 to $2.1 billion this year.
Two items are largely to blame for the cost increases — prison guard overtime is up more than 100 percent in the past five years and prisoner health care costs are up more than 40 percent in the past five years, according to data compiled by the staff of state Sen. Alan Cropsey.
Had enough yet?
Think there’s enough wiggle room in there for both the Dems and Republicans to make a few compromises and still score enough political points to claim victory?
We do.
2 Comments
Thank you for posting this. My fiance is one of the 11,822 non-violent inmates currently at Cooper St. He was sentenced to a minimum 10 month sentence. He has voluntarily successfully completed substance abuse programs, other programs, and has worked for 9 months on a public works crew, where he goes outside of the prison gates to work in the public. Yet the parole board chose to give him a 12 month continuance stating “he lacks insight into his behavior”. He has no major tickets while incarcerated, has a support system outside of prison, a job to come home to, and substance abuse treatment.
This is just an example of the many inmates that are currently housed in the MDOC system and who the parole board continues to deny parole to. This is one reason why the prison system is overcrowded.
As far as non-violent offenders are concerned I agree, let them out earlier especially if they’re in there for something such as selling marijuana. But it’s been proven time and again privatization for corrctions does not work. Why not privatize the state police while we’re at it too?