Is Michigan doomed to a $2 billion per year Corrections Department?
Readers may be aware of the Granholm administration's push to reduce the prison population in the state
. This should, in theory, help the state control costs, since housing a felon in a prison can run you $20,000 to $30,000 per year.
The funny thing is, smaller prisons aren't leading to smaller budgets.
In fiscal 2005, the DOC used $1.7 billion in general fund dollars. For fiscal 2010, DOC is supposed to spend $1.89 billion.
For the 2011 budget, the governor initially recommended $1.88 billion for the department. The Senate has voted for $1.91 billion. And the House has voted for $1.99 billion. In her latest bid to break the budgetary logjam, Jennifer Granholm has advised a $50 million cut for DOC in 2011. So, best case, that's, what, $1.83 billion?
For its part, DOC is pointing to efficiency efforts. After seeing a report at governing.com about how Wisconsin and Minnesota were saving money by standardizing prison menus (www.governing.com/topics/economic-dev/minnesota-wisconsin-partnership.html), I asked the DOC what Michigan does in this regard.
DOC spokesman Russ Marlan replied, "We recently contracted with a supply chain management company out of Okemos called Integrated Strategies to help lower our food service costs and increase efficiency. As
part of this process, we do now have a statewide standard menu. We also have a card swipe system that the inmates use to help prevent double backs (inmates getting two meals).
"As a result of all this work, we have lowered the daily food cost from about $2.60 per inmate, per day, to approximately $2.30 per inmate, per day (for three meals)."
On an annual basis, this translates to about $5 million. That's real money, but only about three-tenths of 1 percent of the departmental budget - if I've done my math correctly.
In 2005, corrections spending was about 19 percent of the state's $8.8 billion general fund. Let's say, for argument, that DOC spends $1.85 billion in 2011, and that the general fund budget is $8.1 billion (a split-the-difference amount from the budgets offered by the House and Senate). In that plausible scenario, DOC would represent 23 percent of the general fund.
From one dollar in five to one dollar in four in about five years - and during a period when the actual prison population fell from about 50,000 to below 45,000.
So, at what point does the state see significant savings due to prisoner releases?
The prisoner-budget disconnect has not gone unnoticed at the Capitol, just unresolved.
Meanwhile, prosecutors across the state have pounded away at prisoner releases. Prosecutors conveniently neglect to explain their own budgetary reforms, but then, they don't have to offer solutions. All they have to do is plug in to the quite understandable fear that a released felon is more dangerous than an imprisoned one.
Rick Snyder's "Policy central" Web page has a folder on "International Image," but not one on prison policy. Hmm. I think prisons will have a far larger effect on a Snyder gubernatorial term than how Michigan is perceived in Finland or Chile.
What do you think? Write Derek Melot, Lansing State Journal, 120 E. Lenawee St., Lansing, MI 48919. For past columns, visit www.lsj.com/columnists.