FREE PRESS EDITORIAL

Don't throw away the key

Prisons can safely save state millions by revising sentencing, parole rules

November 11, 2007

Facing its worst budget problems in modern times, the State of Michigan still incarcerates 50,000 people at a cost of nearly $35,000 per inmate per year. That adds up to nearly $2 billion -- more than 20% of the general fund budget -- for the Department of Corrections. While most of the people behind bars in Michigan are right where they belong, the state can and should take more steps to safely reduce the inmate population.

Michigan's incarceration rate -- 502 inmates per 100,000 people -- is out of whack. It is by far the highest in the Great Lakes region -- Illinois, for example, is 354, Ohio 414 -- and eighth-highest among the 50 states, according to the latest report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. The state's staggering prison costs might be worth it if Michigan also was among the lowest-crime states, but it's not.

Nor are Michigan prisons much more than warehouses, lacking education and rehabilitation programs that might make a difference in the return rate for offenders, now at nearly 50%.

The state Department of Corrections has begun some efforts to cut costs. It has slightly increased parole rates in conjunction with its prisoner re-entry program; released some old, infirm or deathly ill inmates; and closed two prisons. But there is much more to be done, including revising the guidelines under which Michigan judges sentence people to prison and complying with a recent court ruling that could affect about 1,000 "lifers" who committed crimes before 1992.

Free Press editorial board member Jeff Gerritt explains more in his column (see Corrections Dept. should give parolable lifers fair hearings).