Here's how to save big money with chump change. Michigan’s $2-billion-a-year prison system holds thousands of inmates who have already served their minimum sentence. To make sure these cases get a thorough and timely review, Gov. Jennifer Granholm should expand the 10-member parole board.
With 49,000 inmates, Michigan has one of the nation’s highest incarceration rates. Longer prison stays, dictated by past parole board practices, are largely responsible for Michigan spending far more on prisons, without a lower crime rate, than surrounding states.
Michigan’s parole rates have increased over the last year, but the state’s 41 prisons still hold 12,000 inmates who are eligible for parole. If even half of them could be safely released, it would save the state nearly $200 million a year. The Parole Board must figure out, as soon as possible, who needs to stay in prison and who can go home.
To do that, the Parole Board should expand by two, four or even six members. The board grants about 12,000 paroles a year, but reviews twice that number of cases. Moreover, board members are now getting added cases from the governor’s new Executive Clemency Advisory Council, which recommends medical and other commutations that require public hearings. The Parole Board is also granting personal reviews to hundreds of parolable lifers, after a federal judge ruled that the Department of Corrections had violated their constitutional rights.
Parole Board members serve rotating four-year terms and earn $89,000 a year. To make their decisions more impartial and accurate, they are learning how to use new validated assessment tools that predict risk based on a variety of information, including crime history, release plan, institutional record and age. But the board must have enough members to ensure that every eligible inmate gets a thorough, and safe, review. Michigan cannot afford a prison system larger than is needed to protect its citizens.