Editorial: Report falls short of prison reform goal
Hard work of cutting spending will fall to governor, lawmakers
The Detroit News
A much-anticipated report on how to cut prison spending suggests that squeezing savings out of prisons isn't going to be as easy as Michigan hoped.
The report by the Council on State Governments, requested by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature, projects changes in the time served by prisoners and parole rules would save $262 million between 2011 and 2015, or just more than $50 million a year.
The governor and business groups are hoping for $500 million to $800 million in prison spending cuts.
Clearly, the hard work of cutting prison spending can't be farmed out.
The council's report recommends releasing well-behaved prisoners when they've served between 100 and 120 percent of their minimum sentences. It also advises that parole violators should be returned to prison for no more than nine months, rather than the full time remaining on their sentence, and some other things.
The ideas are good, but not nearly enough. This report really wasn't worth waiting for.
Michigan faces a projected deficit of up to $1 billion in the next fiscal year. Prison spending cuts must be a critical piece of erasing that deficit.
The governor and legislative leaders have to get to work mapping out real sentencing changes that will deliver substantial savings in the $2 billion annual Corrections Department budget. Fewer prisoners must be locked up. Alternatives to paying $30,000 to $40,000 a year to keep an inmate in prison must be found.
Nothing should be off the table, including contracting out prison services to private businesses.
Lansing had hoped the council's report would take the politics out of prison reform and spare the state a partisan fight. It won't.
But maybe the report will provide a starting point for what has to be a much larger task.