IN OUR OPINION

August 29, 2007

 

State legislators are considering important changes to the guidelines that help determine who goes to prison and who doesn't.

 

However, to safely control Michigan's $1.9-billion prison system, the state also must do a better job of deciding who among the incarcerated should be let out.

 

Michigan needs more accountability from the 10-member Parole Board on how it uses the guidelines it's required by law to follow. Too often, these guidelines, based on a statistical assessment of the prisoner's risk of reoffending, appear to be ignored. A bill introduced by state Rep. Paul Condino, D-Southfield, would provide some needed oversight.

 

The bill would enable inmates to appeal parole denials in court if they were evaluated as a low risk to reoffend, and it would require the department to record their interviews. Condino's bill also would apply board guidelines to the more than 800 lifers in Michigan who are eligible for parole. Currently, there is no way to enforce parole guidelines. A statistical assessment -- including prior record, prison conduct and age -- scores an inmate's probability for release. However, MDOC records obtained by the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending show that the board last year released only 53% of those inmates who scored a low risk to reoffend. In 1996, it released 81% of such inmates, said CAPPS Executive Director Barbara Levine.

 

Altogether, roughly 16,000 inmates -- nearly one-third of the prison population -- are eligible for release. That's double the rate of the early 1990s.

 

To be sure, there are good reasons -- such as poor prison-conduct records -- for keeping inmates beyond their minimum sentences. But the large number of parole-eligible inmates in Michigan raises questions about whether some prisoners -- perhaps thousands -- are held longer than necessary.

 

Parole Board decisions have contributed mightily to large increases in Michigan's prison population -- and to the enormous costs of running the system.

 

In recent years, the Parole Board, under the leadership of John Rubitschun, its former chairman and now an MDOC deputy director, has done a better job of reviewing certain cases. But the parole process in Michigan needs more safeguards -- and accountability.

 

Condino's bill is good step toward getting it.