Good morning Chairman Meadows
and Members of the Committee. I appreciate
the opportunity to speak very briefly
regarding these bills.
CAPPS has long advocated
increasing the commutation rates of
prisoners who are seriously or terminally
ill. It is both the compassionate and the
cost-effective thing to do. There is simply
no point in continuing to incarcerate, at
substantial public expense, people who are
too incapacitated to be any threat to public
safety. Over the last two years, the
governor and the parole board have greatly
increased their efforts to identify and
release appropriate candidates for medical
commutations. However, there has been
frustration over the delays caused by the
multi-step commutation process. Too often,
terminally ill people have died in prison
while awaiting a public hearing instead of
spending their last few weeks or months at
home with their families. These bills are a
modest, very reasonable step toward reducing
that problem and we appreciate their
sponsorship by Representatives Meadows and
Jones.
I am speaking today only to
express our concern that all sex offenders
are automatically excluded, in subsection
(3, from the provisions that waive the
public hearing requirement for terminally
ill people who have committed every other
kind of offense, from serial murder to child
abuse. I understand that there is little
chance of any amendment this morning, but I
wanted to call your attention to several
points.zaq
I believe this exclusion
rests on several false premises. One is
that all sex offenders fit some stereotype
of a compulsive pedophile who abducts
children from schoolyards. Another is that
sex offenders can never be punished enough.
The third is that all sex offenders are a
perpetual danger to the community and should
be incarcerated as long as possible.
The term sex offender covers
a very wide range of behaviors and
circumstances. I have attached profiles of
two people whose situational offenses had
nothing to do with children or sexual
compulsions. I would encourage you to read
them when you get the chance and consider
whether they have been punished enough and
why they should be denied the same
compassion as all other prisoners if they
should become terminally ill.
As for recidivism, re-offense
rates are extremely low for sex offenders
even when they are not terminally ill.
CAPPS is in the process of completing
research on the recidivism rates of people
released from prison in Michigan over a
14-year period. Of nearly 6,200 sex
offenders, only 3.1% were returned for
committing new sex offenses. Only 7.5% were
returned to prison for committing a new
crime of any kind. The table attached to
my testimony shows that the Michigan results
are very similar to studies done by the
Bureau of Justice Statistics and by
researchers in other states.
We understand the need for
compromise and will be glad to see these
bills pass even with the exclusion for sex
offenders. But you will undoubtedly be
dealing with a variety of corrections bills
aimed at reducing the prisoner population.
Since it would be unfortunate if this sort
of exclusion became common, I thought it
might be useful to call attention to the
issue now.
Thank you.
