Sep 8, 2011
Maybe you were too busy firing up the
grill for the holiday weekend to notice,
but Michigan's prison population dropped
to the lowest level in 13 years last
Friday.
The latest count -- 43,305 -- is
8,000 fewer than in March 2007, when the
state locked up a record 51,554 people.
Prison admissions are down, parole
grants are up, and fewer people are
returning to prison. Michigan has closed
more than a dozen prisons and camps.
You probably don't feel any less
safe, either -- and you shouldn't.
Despite the ravings of prosecutors,
crime has gone down significantly in
recent years, even in the worst economy
since the Great Depression.
Truth be told, no one really knows
why. Crime rates have bounced around for
the last 40 years, while the state's
prison population rose steadily from
9,000 to more than 50,000.
Crime rates don't drive prison
populations -- public policy does. And
for almost four decades, an orgy of
failed tough-on-crime measures like
mandatory minimum drug sentences has
driven incarceration rates here and
around the country to insane levels.
Between 1980 and 1990, for example,
Michigan's prison population more than
doubled from 15,000 to 34,000, while the
state's population increased less than
1%. The prison population rose another
40% to 47,700 by 2000. More people
weren't necessarily going to prison, but
they were staying a lot longer because
of decisions made by politicians trying
to sound tough instead of smart.
Besides enacting mandatory minimum
sentences for drug offenses, the state
eliminated good time for prisoners,
passed truth-in-sentencing and felony
firearms laws, replaced corrections
professionals on the state Parole Board
with political appointees, and used
habitual offender laws more frequently.
Michigan prisoners served, on average,
140% of their minimum sentences.
The result: massive increases in the
state's prison population that have
exacted enormous costs with little, if
any, impact on crime rates. Spending
nearly $2 billion a year, Corrections
now devours 25% of the state's general
fund and employs one in three state
civil service workers. Michigan is one
of only four states that spend more on
prisons than higher education.
The news isn't all bad. Since 2005,
the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry
Initiative has helped reduced recidivism
by connecting parolees with jobs,
housing and needed services. The number
of parolees returning to prison for new
crimes, for example, dropped 18% this
year. You don't hear their stories in
the media, but their efforts to stay on
track in this economy are often nothing
short of heroic.
Without changes in public policy,
however, Michigan's prison population
will probably remain relatively stable
for the next few years, said Steve
DeBor, administrator of the office of
research and planning. Further decreases
will take action by the governor and
Legislature.
Following other states by restoring
good time would be a good start. Other
steps include establishing a commission
to review sentencing guidelines,
repealing Michigan's notorious juvenile
lifer law, releasing dying and
chronically sick inmates, and creating a
temporary parole board to review the
cases of hundreds of parolable lifers
who now get a review only once every
five years.
Legislators should also enact a
presumptive parole statute, requiring
the parole board to release offenders
who have served their minimum sentence,
completed recommended programs,
maintained good conduct records and
don't pose a significant threat to
public safety.
Barbara Levine, executive director of
the
Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public
Spending, estimates those reforms
would reduce the state's prison
population to 34,000 -- where it stood
in 1990 -- within a few years, saving
more than $300 million a year.
Michigan cannot save this kind of
money by spending less than the $2 a day
it now spends on food for each inmate,
or cutting the salaries of professional
corrections officers. It can do it only
by reducing the prison population and
closing prisons. Each inmate costs an
average of $35,000 a year to
incarcerate.
Michigan's prison population has
plummeted for the first time in decades
while crime rates have fallen. There's a
lesson there if politicians have the
courage and common sense to see it. Gov.
Rick Snyder and legislators must change
the policies that still keep Michigan's
prison population far higher than it
needs to be.
JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press
editorial writer. Contact him at
gerritt@freepress.com or
313-222-6585.
