Jeff Gerritt: New corrections director says re-entry initiative, cutting prison population are important

12:25 AM, Jul. 17, 2011 

Before becoming the director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, former Jackson County Sheriff Daniel Heyns was best known statewide as a critic of the state's $33-million Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative. His appointment by Gov. Rick Snyder, effective June 1, disappointed many advocates of prison reform.

But in a surprising interview with the Free Press, Heyns expressed strong support for re-entry programs, while acknowledging that significant changes were coming, including shifting some money now spent on community programs into the state's 32 prisons.

He said he wanted to increase prison education programs and suggested he would back the restoration of good time -- the practice of rewarding prisoners for good conduct by shaving their sentences -- for Michigan's 43,500 prison inmates, a move that likely would elicit howls of protest from many prosecutors and legislators.

"It's easy for people to talk about getting tough on crime and throwing away the key, but the reality is we have to do a better job of turning people's lives around," Heyns said in his first comprehensive interview since assuming leadership of Michigan's sprawling prison system.

Good time -- rewarding good behavior in prison by shaving sentences -- has kept a lid on populations and given inmates incentives to act right in the federal system, county jails and prisons throughout the country. Unfortunately, good time became two four-letter words in Michigan in 1998, when legislators trying to sound tough passed so-called truth-in-sentencing laws abolishing the policy.

Over the last decade, restoring good time has been one of my many lost causes. Year after year, good time bills have died in legislative committee, thanks mainly to prosecutors who won't rest until there's a prison on every block and the Department of Corrections sucks the last centavo out of the state's general fund.

But law enforcement isn't unanimously opposed to good time. In fact, good time may have just found an unlikely advocate whose law-and-order résumé is six pages long: the former Jackson County sheriff who became head of the Michigan Department of Corrections on June 1.

I say may have because Corrections Director Daniel Heyns understands the hazards of even talking about allowing inmates to hit the bricks sooner.

"We're getting into a hot-button issue, so let me be as diplomatic as possible," Heyns told me last week in his Lansing office. "I know the prosecutors are going to fry at the thought, but I think not to put it (good time) on the table would be crazy. ...

"It can play an important part in controlling behavior. When they took good time away from corrections people, they took away a very powerful tool. County sheriffs still have it. It works well."

Restoring good time would also reduce the state's prison population by the thousands, and bring Michigan in line with the rest of the country. Michigan is one of only a handful of states that have not adopted federal standards for truth in sentencing, which make inmates with good behavior eligible for parole after serving 85% of their sentence. Under a conservative Republican governor, Mississippi enacted good-time credits of up to 75% for nonviolent offenders.

Even with good-time credits, the Michigan Parole Board would have to approve a parole before the prisoner went home.

With 43,500 prisoners, Michigan has one of the nation's highest incarceration rates, largely because it keeps people locked up far longer than other states. Prisoners here serve, on average, 127% of their court-ordered minimum sentences, even though length of stay doesn't affect their chances of reoffending. Michigan's 32 prisons still hold at least 8,000 parole-eligible prisoners.

Critics of good time say convoluted calculations created uncertainty about an offender's sentence. But it's easy enough to devise a simple system that would enable all to know, on the day of sentencing, an offender's earliest date of parole eligibility.

Michigan's county jails already use good time. As sheriff, Heyns saw it work firsthand.

"We had a very simple system at the county jail level: You do 30 days and you could get five days of good time," he said. "Do the math. It's pretty simple. If you don't screw up, you're going to get the five days.

"Maybe we just need a simple system that everyone can calculate."

Good time also provides a powerful incentive for inmates to avoid trouble, Heyns said. Some states even grant earned good time for completing education and other programs.

After talking to hundreds of inmates over the years, I know good time would enable many of them to safely go home a little sooner to support families and pay taxes, instead of costing taxpayers $35,000 a year. Business groups like the Detroit Regional Chamber have also backed good-time plans, understanding that the state can no longer afford criminal justice policies that take nearly $2 billion a year from the general fund, or to ignore a reform that could save $100 million a year.

"If we're concerned about the cost of corrections, we've got to talk about ways to reduce length of stay -- and one of them is good time," Heyns said. "We need to at least talk about it in a thoughtful and rational way."

So far, Michigan prosecutors have stymied the debate on good time with hype and hysteria. With a new sheriff in town, those days may be over.

JEFF GERRITT is a Detroit Free Press editorial writer. Contact him at gerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.