Study: Early Prisoner Release Does Not Put The Public At Risk LANSING, MI (MPRN) -

Letting violent criminals out of prison early may not pose a significant risk to the public.

That's the conclusion of a study released by the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending, or CAPPS.

The study found only three percent of sex offenders in Michigan returned to prison for another sex crime. It also showed murderers and rapists are often denied their first parole.

"The parole board should be deciding not whether someone's been punished enough," says Barbara Levine, with CAPPS, "but whether now that they've served the time that the judge imposed, whether they are too high a risk to release. Whether there's some reason not to release them; either because of institutional misconduct or because of objective factors that suggest that they are too high a risk to release"

Levine says the findings should be considered as the state develops corrections reforms. © Copyright 2009, MPRN