Published February 18, 2007

Gear: Michigan is well on its way to imprisoning its economy, future

They say not to give advice - because those who need it won't take it and those who'll take it don't need it. But I want to offer this simple message to Michigan politicians, taxpayers, and voters anyway:

No state ever imprisoned its way to prosperity.

National statistics for 2004 show 483 Michiganders incarcerated for every 100,000 Michiganders. Other Great Lakes states get by with far less imprisonment: In Minnesota it's only 171 per 100,000; Pennsylvania, 329; New York, 331; Illinois, 346; Indiana, 383; Wisconsin, 390; and Ohio, next highest, just 391.

Michigan taxpayers pay about $32,300 annually to imprison someone. With Michigan's 10 million people, that means annual state spending is $297 million more than if we jailed people at Ohio's rate, and $1 billion more than if we matched Minnesota's rate.

Shouldn't some of that go toward figuring out how to make Michigan's incarceration rates more like our neighbors? Especially since Michigan's economy keeps sputtering and backfiring, while the cost of keeping ever older prisoners in for mandatory minimum sentences just keeps climbing?

Plus, a federal judge now insists that prisoners are entitled to medical care as if they were human beings. That means big increases in prison costs are coming.

Tackling Michigan's prison binge will be hard. It means talking about things like race, the "war on drugs," parole policies and, politicians seeking more prison spending - in their district. Then' there's the voters' habit of rewarding candidates who promise to be "tough on crime," even as voters want more of what prisons are crowding out, such as services so grandma can stay out of a nursing home, smaller class sizes, clean drinking water, and air fit to breathe.

Driving past one of Michigan's many prisons, I realized that they are the state's new factories. Only they are devoted to destruction rather than production: relentless, intentional, irreversible destruction of human potential, at the rate of 50,000 man-years per year.

Writing this piece, I viewed the Michigan jobs list. Twenty-eight of the 50 most recently posted jobs were with the Department of Corrections. And those were all among the best, most responsible, highest-paying jobs listed. Of the remaining 22 jobs, half were for the Department of Transportation.

After prisons and highways, there were only scraps for all other functions, including part-time, no-benefits "McJobs" and seasonal work. The Web site's take-home-message: Prisons are the most important thing in state government.

I'm no Pollyanna. We need for some people to be in prison and to stay there for a long time; forever in a few cases. But how can Michigan keep pace with its neighbors while its prison spending is so extraordinarily and atypically higher than theirs? Aren't there more productive uses for that much money?

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