At this time of fiscal crunch for state government and consequent
sacrifice by the citizenry, one major branch of state government has gone
virtually untouched. That is the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Indeed, an opportunity to cut $60 million presents itself in this area.
Additionally, this is at a point in our history when, according to the
latest issue of The Atlantic, the violent-crime and property-crime rates
are at a record low.
The immediate release of 3,000 prisoners, a mere 6 percent of the total
incarcerated in our state, would save us this $60 million. The benefits
would be two-fold: We could reduce the cuts in other vital services, and
give 3,000 people who have paid their debt to society an opportunity at a
new life and a chance for all of us to benefit from their contribution to
society.
Beyond the 3,000, another category of prisoners the parole board should
scrutinize for likely candidates for immediate release are the
parole-eligible lifers. The benefits accruing from the release of a
selected number of this prison population, both to those released and
society, would be in addition to the 3,000 releases and the $60 million
already mentioned.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's latest executive order cut the MDOC by $16
million, leaving its budget still at more than $1.6 billion. However,
compared to fiscal year 2002 the MDOC budget has actually increased by 1.8
percent.
Over the same period, spending for the state police went down more than
$62 million, or 20.9 percent, and the Family Independence Agency has been
reduced $88.6 million, or 7.4 percent. Colleges and universities lost 15
percent in the past 12 months, including $72 million in the last executive
order cut alone.
Additionally, and perhaps most damaging in communities like Flint, due
to the shortfall in the state School Aid Fund, every school district is
likely to see more cuts upcoming in per pupil expenditures.
Who are these 3,000 prisoners the MDOC could release immediately? Nine
hundred are prisoners who have been granted a parole and are waiting for
the date the parole board has set. The state previously paroled the
remaining 2,100 prisoners and then sent them back for technical violations
of the terms of their parole.
Technical violators have not committed a new crime, but rather have
failed to meet the conditions of their parole, such as not showing up for
a scheduled meeting with their parole officer. While such violations
shouldn't be sloughed off, there are ways to treat them that are less
expensive and more effective than sending the violator back to prison.
Alternative sanctions include increased reporting, electronic monitoring
(a tether), referral to treatment and placement in a technical rule
violator center for several months.
Finally, the parole-eligible lifers population includes individuals
that rationally deserve release. In the 1970s and 1980s, judges knew these
prisoners would be considered for parole after 10 years, and such a life
sentence was considered more lenient than a 20-year minimum.
Then in the 1990s, the sentencing guidelines were changed and many of
these prisoners have served long beyond 10 years, or even 20.
If the evidence indicates that such a prisoner committed his or her
crime when young, kept clean while in prison and went through treatment
programs, even if the crime was assaultive in nature, the odds are
overwhelming that he or she will not recidivate.
While I was a volunteer teacher at the Thumb Correctional Facility in
Lapeer for five years, I met some prisoners who had over the course of
many years really changed their heads, become a different person, which is
something that few of us on the outside have achieved. Are you still
keeping your New Year's resolutions of a year ago?
Do we want to keep all these individuals locked up indefinitely, at a
$29,000 price tag annually per prisoner?
I am simply suggesting that we resolve now to examine the policies and
practices of state government in the area of corrections to see if there
isn't money to be saved and lives to be gotten on with.
Jim Campbell, a member of the Flint Board of Education, is a retired
college professor and a former volunteer teacher at the Thumb Correctional
Facility in Lapeer.
