Before substantive reform of Michigan's government can happen, the warring parties in Lansing have to be coaxed out of their trenches and into a middle ground.

Finding an issue Republicans and Democrats can agree on to get the reform process rolling has seemed impossible. But Kenneth Braun, an analyst with the Mackinac Center in Midland, believes the prison system provides the perfect entry point.

"I can't see a better area of the budget to start with than prisons," he says. "It's the only place where the governor has suggested that government can be smaller."

The Mackinac Center doesn't often find cause to praise Gov. Jennifer Granholm, but it supports her idea of slashing Corrections spending by locking up fewer people, and keeping the ones it does lock up behind bars for less time.

Her sentencing reforms would save the state nearly $100 million. Michigan keeps more people in prison than most of its neighbors without a noticeable impact on public safety. The governor is dead-on that prison spending must be contained.

At the same time, Republican lawmakers note that Michigan spends more per prisoner than most other states, primarily because of the expensive, unionized Corrections work force. They want to outsource some of the work now done by state employees.

Even privatizing just 5 percent of the prison system would save the state $192 million, according to the Mackinac Center.

Add that to the money saved by sentencing reform, and it amounts to a nearly $300 million bite out of the $1.8 billion budget deficit without reaching into taxpayer pockets.

How to get there? First, each side has to admit that the other has come up with a good idea.

That's harder than it sounds in a political environment poisoned by partisanship. But if the Mackinac Center can give Granholm an "atta girl," how much harder could it be for Senate Republicans?

Each side also has to stand up to its string pullers. Republicans will have to level with the law-and-order crowd that the price of adding to the prison population every year is higher taxes. They have to start talking about alternative punishments -- fines, community service, public floggings, dunce caps -- for those who need to pay for their crime, but don't present a danger to public safety or private property.

It's hard to see how the public interest is served by spending more than $40,000 a year to keep a pothead behind bars.

For her part, Granholm has to revise her view of the purpose of state government. It exists to provide services, not union jobs. If the work can be done just as well, but cheaper, by private contractors, her fiduciary duty is to outsource the work.

Real reform won't happen until she tells the unions they no longer call the tune.

Two good ideas are in play for saving real money by reforming the Corrections Department. Put them together, and it could provide the momentum for moving through the entire state budget and agreeing to substantive changes in the way government does business.

Get Lansing excited about that work, and there's no telling where it might lead.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. Read his blog at forums.detnews.com/blogs/.