Michigan prisons bulging
LANSING -- Michigan's prisons are packed to the gills with a record high number of inmates, driven by a parolee's murder spree last year, state officials said.
Michigan ended 2006 with 51,570 inmates, up from 49,493 in 2005, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. The previous high was 50,591 at the end of 2002.
The unexpected 2,077-inmate jump last year was more than enough to fill a new prison, but officials instead squeezed inmates into the state's existing 50 facilities.
TV rooms, weight rooms, and office and storage space were cleared for beds, and lower-security prisons with six-bed dormitory-style rooms had a seventh bed shoehorned in.
The growth is straining a state budget that is already under severe pressure, with revenues falling $850 million short of projections this year, according to Senate Fiscal Agency estimates.
Plans to fill 212 corrections officers positions have been put on hold, said Russ Marlan, Corrections spokesman. The department had planned to hire 700 officers this fiscal year to fill vacancies, but stopped at 488, he said.
Prison officials say the February slayings of three people by Patrick Selepak, a parolee returned to prison for violating parole and then released without a required hearing, helped drive up the prison commitment rate, drop the parole rate and increase the number of parolees returned to prison for violating parole.
"We've seen some substantial jumps and, for us, it's all bad because it means more people in prison beds,'' Marlan said.
Parole rates, for example, dropped immediately after the slayings from 54.4 percent in February to 48 percent in March. The overall decline for the year was enough to keep 725 inmates behind bars. Parolees returned to prison for technical violations also jumped 12 percent to 3,191, Marlan said.
Barbara Levine, executive director of the Michigan Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending, said the reaction to the Selepak case means the state is spending more to hold thousands of low-risk inmates.
"It just diverts tens of millions of dollars that could go to many urgent needs, including child protection, revenue sharing for local police and other crime preventive services,'' she said.
Union leader Mel Grieshaber, executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization, said he worries that short staffing could lead to safety concerns. He said all of the 700 new corrections officers are needed.
"When they start taking money out of the budget, the corrections officers start sweating,'' he said.
Although the state has hired 1,342 officers over the past four years, plus the 700 planned this year, that hasn't been enough to keep up with turnover. MCO has 9,000 officers, down from the peak of 10,000 officers in 2001, Grieshaber said.
Grieshaber said the union is constantly arguing for more staff, especially at some of the minimum- and medium-security prisons in pole-barn structures, where sometimes just three officers guard about 280 inmates at night. Those inmates are not locked into cells, Grieshaber said.
Marlan contends that staffing has been kept at adequate levels.
A recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice found Michigan's incarceration rates second-highest in the 12-state Midwest region, second only to Missouri's. Michigan's rate, 489 inmates per 100,000 residents in 2005, is the 11th highest in the country.
Tom Clay, of the independent policy group Citizens Research Council, said if Michigan would lower its incarceration rate to that of other Great Lakes states, it would save $500 million a year. He said Michigan's incarceration rate is 40 percent higher than those other states, due to longer sentences.
"It is the one place in the state budget that really stands out from being different from states where we typically compare ourselves,'' Clay said.
Michigan spends $1.9 billion annually on its prisons, more than the $1.6 billion spent on public universities.
State officials say they hope the 2-year-old Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Program, which focuses on helping parolees find jobs and decent housing, will eventually help control the prison population.
Of the 4,634 prisoners released through the program since 2005, 402 have returned to prison. That's 104 fewer than would be expected without the program, according to a department study.
-- Contact Judy Putnam at (517) 487-8888 x232 or e-mail her at jputnam@boothnewspapers.com.