JEFF GERRITT

Corrections may correct shortsighted parole policy

The Michigan Department of Corrections, following my July 2 report on parolee Craig Atkins, is reviewing a new policy that requires all parolees under appeal by a prosecutor to carry a GPS tether. Corrections might switch to a policy that would, instead, decide on a case-by-case basis. That makes sense. Pushing parolees toward failure undermines public safety and the state’s own Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative.

The change in Corrections policy — if approved — would not affect a lot of people. Most parolees now under appeal are sex offenders. All parolees who are sex offenders — whether or not they are under prosecutorial appeal — must now have GPS tethers. It’s a condition of parole and it won’t change. Still, determining other cases individually would almost certainly have prevented Atkins, 52, of Pontiac, from having to carry a GPS tether. Even the Department of Corrections told me Atkins had done everything right as a parolee. And without the GPS unit, he probably would be working today and paying taxes, instead of homeless.

Atkins, who served 21 years for second-degree murder, was paroled on Oct. 22. He was making $26 an hour working for Fed Brothers Construction in Pontiac. He also attended Baker College of Auburn Hills. After Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper appealed his release, Corrections decided, in early May, to put every parolee with an appeal on a GPS tether. As a result, Atkins lost his job. Company co-owner Tony Fed told me Atkins was doing a good job, but the bulky electronic GPS unit could injure a worker using tools like a jackhammer or moving around in tight spots. He had to let him go.

Yesterday, Atkins got more bad news. He said Baker College officials told him the school was denying part of his school loan for this semester and next because of academic problems, which Atkins attributed to stress. Without the cash part of the loan, Atkins said he will have to drop out of college. For the last five days, he said, he has been living in his truck.

Unfortunately, a change in state policy — if it comes — will probably come too late for Atkins. “It’s over for me,’’ a despondent Atkins told me today. Nevertheless, his case underscores why the state’s current policy is stupid and shortsighted. Corrections appears to understand that policies that push parolees toward failure, and even crime, are dangerously self-defeating. Maybe prosecutors will get the message, too.

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