Gongwer News Update 2-6-07
GRANHOLM TO
COMMUTE SENTENCES FOR INFIRM, ALIENS
Part of the effort of reducing the state’s
budget is reducing the number of people it houses in prisons. Governor Jennifer Granholm is expected
to propose Tuesday doing that in part by releasing those whose medical
condition or age makes them unlikely to be a danger to society, as well as
those who are not likely to remain in the country long enough to be a danger.
In her State of the State address, Ms. Granholm is
expected to announce a change in her commutation policy, which today has
released few prisoners, to make it more amenable to releasing those causing a
drain on the state’s budget.
The primary target of this new policy will be the
most severely ill prisoners.
“The 300 most medically fragile people in the system cost the
taxpayers over $30 million a year,” said Corrections spokesperson Russ
Marlan. And he said the most ill
person cost the state $1 million last fiscal year.
The question that has apparently not been answered
in the equation is who would then pay for the care of the commuted prisoners
once they are released. But Mr.
Marlan said in part that is because review of the particular circumstances of
each prisoner has not been completed.
“What we have is an idea where we’re
going to go on this,” he said.
“Certainly it is not our intention to have
these older fragile prisoner become part of the uninsured,” said Granholm
press secretary Liz Boyd. She said
in many cases, the prisoners would be eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid,
but she said the administration had not yet worked out the criteria for
deciding who would be released.
“We don’t get Medicaid funds,” Mr.
Marlan said of the department.
“Their health care is paid 100 percent by general fund.”
And he noted that some prisoners have private health
insurance that would cover them once they are released. Most policies, he said, have a provision
that suspends coverage while a person is incarcerated.
The department is also working with the U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service to determine which prisoners might be
eligible to be deported immediately upon release.
“We’re doing what we can to work with
Immigration,” Mr. Marlan said.
“Some of these people, barring commutation, may be serving 3 to 4
to 5 to 6 years more. The
commutation may move up deportation.”
The proposal marks a reversal for the department,
which had in April rejected its role in substantially reducing prison
populations and argued it could potentially put criminals on the street.
Mr. Marlan said at the time (See Gongwer
Michigan Report, April 27, 2006) that in many cases such prisoners are
released on bond during the appeals of their deportation orders because of lack
of space in federal prisons.
“There very few cases where they
can say this is a done deal,” he said at the time of deportation
orders. “They have
appeal rights on those deportation orders. So while in theory one
would think that's what happens but it (deportation) doesn’t always
happen.”
But Mr. Marlan said the department is also again
pushing for changes in sentencing guidelines that would cut back the prison
population. “There’s
been no review of those since ’98,” Mr. Marlan said of the
guidelines. “We’re
seeing a lot more people sent to prison than what was anticipated when those
were designed.”
He said that increased incarceration rate, paired
with the current budget crisis, could create the political will to make
sentencing changes that has been lacking from legislative leadership in past
sessions.
Granholm press secretary Liz Boyd said the effort
also would include more funding for the prisoner re-entry program. She said the pilot of that program
showed a 21 percent decrease in recidivism over parolees not involved in the
program.
“What we’re looking at really is a
proposal that will allow us to safely reduce the prison population and put us
in line with our Midwestern neighbors, at the same time not compromising public
safety,” Ms. Boyd said.
Both noted that
Rep.
Alma Wheeler Smith (D-Ypsilanti), chair of the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Corrections, said releasing prisoners who are chronically ill
and elderly is “long overdue.”
“We save a lot on healthcare issues but
it’s important they are eligible for Medicaid or Medicare,” as they
reenter society, Ms. Wheeler Smith said.
In terms of releasing non-violent drug offenders,
she said that over the past 15 years lawmakers have been tough on crime but
they haven’t been smart on crime in that misdemeanors for drug-related
offenses were turned into felonies that eventually had stricter sentencing
guidelines attached to them.
Ms. Wheeler Smith said the state’s population
is no more criminal than those of neighboring states that release those
low-risk prisoners at a faster rate than
“In terms of public policy I think we have
been our own worst enemy,” she said, adding that besides the release of
such prisoners, she also supports reform to the state’s sentencing
guidelines, which are being discussed by the House Judiciary Committee on
Wednesday.
Matt Resch, spokesperson for House Minority
Leader Craig DeRoche (R-Novi), said the administration has to be clear on
who these prisoners are who are being released so that public safety is not at
risk. When the issue has been
brought up in the past and prisoners’ histories were taken into account,
sometimes the non-violent drug offenders were not so non-violent, Mr. Resch
said.
“That’s what has snagged this proposal
in the past,” he said.
“We have to see more details.”