LANSING- Nearly a year after finishing his minimum sentence, Derrick Gooley was released from prison in November 2004, according to the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending (CAPPS).

During his nine years behind bars for unarmed robbery and history of drug offenses, Gooley had a good behavior record and participated in drug rehab and vocational programs.

He also tried to enroll in the Assaultive Offender Program (AOP), a nearly yearlong therapy program for prisoners convicted of assaultive crimes. Inmates must be recommended and there’s a waiting list to enroll.

Gooley tried three times to join but was turned down because his convictions did not reflect assaultive behavior.

Although his record was good, the parole board denied him early release because of his failure to enter AOP, the corrections advocacy group says.

He spent an extra year in prison, finally in AOP and working toward release, costing taxpayers about $20,000.

AOP is available only to prisoners in minimum and low-security facilities, where about 11,000 people are on the waiting list. Currently, more than 2,000 of them are within one year of or past the date for their parole, according CAPPS

Additionally, not all facilities offer AOP, which prompts prisoners to apply for transfers at least a year before their first parole interview. That also adds to the time prisoners may be incarcerated beyond their early release date, said Barbara Levine, executive director of CAPPS.

Russ Marlan, a press officer for the Department of Corrections, said the parole board doesn’t necessarily base its decisions on a prisoner’s ability to complete the program.

But CAPPS, the American Friends Service Committee and Sen. Michael Bishop, R-Rochester, say that is exactly the case.

“We have a real crisis here in Michigan,” said Bishop, who said he will soon introduce legislation to ensure prisoners can’t be denied parole because they have not completed AOP. “There shouldn’t be a requirement to complete a program unless you can complete that program.”

Bishop’s proposal would prohibit the parole board from denying early release to inmates because they haven’t completed AOP.

According to Levine, the parole board currently defers decisions or denies parole to those prisoners.

Bishop said his goal is to give the Department of Corrections an incentive to get prisoners into AOP sooner and to create more openings in an already crowded system.

The state houses about 48,500 prisoners and has warned that open bed spaces could run out by June if changes aren’t made.

But Marlan said the legislation isn’t necessary and the department has been looking at the AOP problem since last summer.

“We do acknowledge that there are some inefficiencies in the way the program is run now,” Marlan said.

The department is looking into creating a statewide waiting list to get prisoners closest to their parole hearings into AOP faster, Marlan said. Currently, each prison has its own waiting list.

Because of financial troubles, the department isn’t able to offer the program at all facilities and has only 100 therapists – the same number as in 1991 when the prison population was about 33,000 inmates. The number of prisoners has risen 47 percent since then.

Budget problems have kept the state from filling about 1,000 jobs, said Corrections Director Pat Caruso.

Granting paroles could be a solution to money woes, said Levine.

By denying parole to about 600 prisoners per year – 35 percent of inmates on AOP waiting lists – because they haven’t completed AOP, the state wastes $12 million annually, according to CAPPS.

"Clearly, the increasing urgency of resolving the state’s financial crisis has now brought this issue back to the forefront," she said.