Out-of-control prison spending is the real injustice
With one of every 200 residents in prison, Michigan has one
of the highest rates of incarceration in the nation - twice
that of Iowa, for example, and 40 percent higher than that
of seven other Great Lakes states.
Michigan will spend $1.9 billion this year operating 49
prisons and camps. That's $4.9 million per day - more
than we spend for K-16 education and libraries combined.
That flies in the face of public priorities. In a 2004
poll, Michiganders ranked corrections lowest among spending
priorities, listing education, juvenile-offender programs
and treatment for the mentally ill as preferred fronts in
the fight against crime.
Indeed, a boom in the state prison industry hasn't
reduced crime rates.
Since 1984, the state's prison population has climbed
from under 15,000 to 51,215, while the portion of the
state's corrections budget grew from 5 percent to more
than 20 percent of the general fund. A third of state
employees - 17,000 - work in corrections.
Yet our crime rate is 25 percent higher than the average of
neighboring states.
Our corrections need correction.
The prisoner explosion has a variety of causes: Sentencing
guidelines that take away discretion from judges; a parole
board loath to free potential killers; the state's
refusal to offer early release for ''good
behavior'' as 48 other states do.
Wrestling with an $800 million budget deficit, Gov.
Jennifer Granholm wants to shave $100 million from the DOC.
She's endorsed a plan to reform sentences and
reclassify 140 felonies to misdemeanors.
Law-enforcement officials skewered the plan, claiming it
would crowd overstuffed jails. But Corrections spokesman
Russ Marlan said the revisions would have moved just 83
prisoners to county lockups last year.
We're paying the price for incarceration whether in state or county
cells, and it's time to pinch our penal pennies for maximum return.
While violent criminals must be kept off the street, imprisoning
nonviolent offenders is unnecessary in light of a host of cheaper, more
effective options.
Sixty-eight percent of Michigan's prisoners are in for violent
crimes, 23 percent for non-drug-related, non-violent crimes, and 9
percent for drugs.
Rather than costing us $32,000 per year in prison, that third of the
prisoners could serve ''house arrest'' for about $2,000 each, or be
admitted to rehabilitation programs proven to reduce re-arrest rates.
Some could perform community service to pay their debts to society.
We must embrace a concept of justice that focuses on restitution and
rehabilitation rather than hard time as we come to grips with our
economic realities.
Robert Brown, Jr., who directed Michigan prisons from 1984 to 1992,
said it best:
''We need to reserve prison space for criminals we're afraid of and
use more conducive and less costly alternatives to rehabilitate
offenders we are simply mad at.''
Because 95 percent of folks in prison eventually get out.
And then they come home.
- Our View is the editorial opinion of The Bay City Times, as
determined by the newspaper's editorial board, which includes the
editorial page editor, the editor and the publisher.
