Local News
To free or not to free
Parolees seek second chances amidst public safety concerns
By EVAN GOODENOW - H-P Staff Writer
Addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine,
Jennifer Cuyler began her road to redemption with an 18-month wake-up
call in prison.
"I was so mad at the judge who sentenced me," said Cuyler, a Coloma resident released Nov. 24. "Now I would kiss the ground he walks on, if that makes any sense. There's really nothing I could do to thank him enough."
Cuyler, 27, is one of a record-high 13,541 prisoners paroled last year by the Michigan Department of Corrections, whose prison population decreased about 9 percent from 50,233 at the end of 2007 to about 45,478 on Jan. 1.
Increased drug laws and stricter sentencing led Michigan and the rest of the nation's prison population to quintuple over the last 30 years despite fluctuating crime rates.
However, Michigan - which has the seventh-highest prison population in the United States - was second only to California in prisoner reductions the last two years, said John Cordell, a DOC spokesperson.
Cuyler, who said she has been clean and sober two years, said she can't make amends to her deceased grandparents, from whom she stole. However, Cuyler, the mother of 11-year-old and 7-year-old daughters, said she's determined to redeem herself.
"I don't want to be remembered as a no-good mother or a failure," Cuyler said. "I want to be remembered as the person who grasped life and turned things around and accomplished things."
Parolees like Cuyler don't often make headlines, but parolees like Donnell Williams do. Williams, a parolee with a long and violent criminal record accused of a violent crime shortly after his release, is a parole board's worst nightmare.
Paroled on Jan. 7 after serving 31⁄2 years of a 3- to 20-year sentence for a stabbing, Williams has been accused of wounding 4-year-old Zaniyah Anderson on April 9 in Benton Harbor.
Witnesses said Williams was shooting at a car whose driver he had been feuding with. Zaniyah was hit by a stray bullet and suffered spinal cord damage. She has been unable to walk since the shooting. Doctors don’t know if the paralysis is permanent, according to Barbara Brown, Zaniyah’s grandmother.
Who’s to blame?
Berrien County Prosecutor Arthur Cotter believes the parole board abdicated its responsibility in Williams’ case.
“This parole board has basically said, ‘We will no longer exercise discretion and will let people out after the minimum sentence.’” Cotter said. “If they don’t use that discretion, what do we need a parole board for? Everybody gets out after the minimum.”
Brown disagrees, and said Williams, rather than the parole board or prosecutors, is ultimately responsible for his actions.
“I’m all for people getting second chances, but I think his minimum (sentence) should’ve been higher,” Brown said of Williams. “The parole board really didn’t do anything wrong. His minimum was three years, and he did 31⁄2 years.”
Last year the corrections department had the lowest parole revocation rate since it began keeping such statistics in 1987. Revocations are down 35 percent since a record high in 2002, despite a 43 percent increase in the parole population since that year, but Cotter contends that’s nothing to brag about.
Cotter, who helped persuade a judge in March to overturn the parole of convicted murderer Steve Sanders, said Williams’ parole should have been revoked by the board in March.
Cotter said police caught Williams taking drugs in March. “Not only are they letting them out without exercising discretion, they won’t send them back to prison unless they commit another violent offense,” he said.
The DOC’s Cordell counters that parole officers have adopted a more discretionary approach that balances cost and public safety. For instance, a parolee testing positive for drugs might receive counseling or treatment in the community rather than in prison, where it’s more expensive.
“We’re not using zero tolerance for every parole violation,” Cordell said. “That’s just not reasonable.”
Stats vs. common wisdom
Cotter emphasized his concern is not nonviolent convicts such as Cuyler being paroled, but violent prisoners being released too soon and endangering the community.
Conventional wisdom is that violent criminals are more likely to commit another crime than are people convicted of property crimes when released from prison.
But an extensive analysis of corrections statistics refutes this. The August study, by the nonprofit Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, tracked the first four years convicts were released in Michigan.
Of the 76,721 prisoners the state released between 1986 and 1999, the study says 4.5 percent returned for crimes against a person. Of the 2,558 murderers released, 69 (2.7 percent) returned for crimes against a person, and 14 (0.5 percent) for another homicide. Prisoners convicted of property crimes such as burglary or larceny had the highest recidivism rate, about 45 percent (24 percent for new crimes, 21 percent for parole violations).
Released sex offenders are even scarier to the public. Laws restricting the freedom of paroled sex offenders are often proposed due to fears they’re likely to reoffend, but the study found otherwise. Of the 6,673 paroled sex offenders, 280 (4.2 percent) were returned for a crime against a person, and 204 (3.1 percent) were returned for a new sex offense.
Over all, 37 percent of the prisoners returned to prison within four years for new crimes or parole violations, according to the study. The most recent recidivism analysis by the department tracked prisoners released in 2005 and 2006 for three years. They had a 39 percent recidivism rate, Cordell said.
Barbara Levine, Citizens Alliance’s executive director, emphasizes the prisoners her group tracked were released before the 2005 creation of the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative, a recidivism reduction program credited by the corrections department with an approximately 32 percent recidivism reduction rate in high-risk parolees compared with 1998 standards.
Levine said that in 1992, after then-Governor John Engler stocked the parole board with political appointees on a “get tough on crime” mission, parole was being revoked based on a prisoner’s crime rather than his prison record or likelihood of reoffending.
Levine, who supports reinstituting credits for good behavior, which would reduce sentences, believes if a prisoner has a good record while behind bars, then he should serve the minimum sentence. “Using the nature of the offense is actually counterproductive in terms of evidence-based decision making,” Levine said.
Levine acknowledged that parole board members don’t have crystal balls and that a small number of prisoners statistically scored to have a low probability of reoffending will commit violent crimes.
“How many people do you keep in because of the risk of three people out of 100 who will recommit?” Levine asked. “There’s a limit to the power of human prediction and what’s reasonable to expect of the board.”
Tom Hendrickson, Michigan Association of Police Chiefs executive director, said he’s sympathetic to the dilemma faced by parole board members and the association doesn’t take an official stance on whether parole is too lenient or strict. But Hendrickson said early parole makes policing more difficult.
“One failure of our criminal justice system is not meting out swift punishment,” Hendrickson said. “I’m not a strong advocate of long prison sentences, but at the same time, in law enforcement we have to look at individuals, and some of these people released do commit some heinous acts.”
Paying her debt
Cuyler understands why people are suspicious of parolees. In prison, she said some inmates were halfhearted about rehabilitation, and some actually liked life behind bars. But she said she used her time productively, throwing herself into alcohol and drug rehabilitation classes, job training, parenting and self-help programs.
Cuyler now works part-time as a waitress and about 20-hour weeks as a caregiver to a friend’s elderly parent. Scheduled to complete parole in May 2011, Cuyler said she continues to attend drug treatment and self-help classes despite graduating from them. Cuyler said she continues to maintain close contact with her parole officer and counselors at The Opportunity Center in Benton Harbor, which helps parolees in Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties find jobs as part of the MPRI program.
Cuyler said there needs to be more inpatient drug rehabilitation for prisoners and parolees and more job opportunities for parolees reintegrating into society. But she said parolees who say they can’t get a job or stay crime-free are copping out. Cuyler said seeing people she knows who remain addicts reminds her of how low she sank and increases her desire to stay clean.
While drug-free for two years, Cuyler still considers herself an addict.
“At any moment I could relapse,” Cuyler said. “I’m not going to say that I will, but there’s always the possibility. Anything can happen.”
Cuyler said she partially deals with her fears by remembering she still has to make amends to her victims.
“They can accept it or they can’t,” she said. “Hopefully they do and see what I’m doing now is something completely different from who I was then.”
egoodenow@TheH-P.com
"I was so mad at the judge who sentenced me," said Cuyler, a Coloma resident released Nov. 24. "Now I would kiss the ground he walks on, if that makes any sense. There's really nothing I could do to thank him enough."
Cuyler, 27, is one of a record-high 13,541 prisoners paroled last year by the Michigan Department of Corrections, whose prison population decreased about 9 percent from 50,233 at the end of 2007 to about 45,478 on Jan. 1.
Increased drug laws and stricter sentencing led Michigan and the rest of the nation's prison population to quintuple over the last 30 years despite fluctuating crime rates.
However, Michigan - which has the seventh-highest prison population in the United States - was second only to California in prisoner reductions the last two years, said John Cordell, a DOC spokesperson.
Cuyler, who said she has been clean and sober two years, said she can't make amends to her deceased grandparents, from whom she stole. However, Cuyler, the mother of 11-year-old and 7-year-old daughters, said she's determined to redeem herself.
"I don't want to be remembered as a no-good mother or a failure," Cuyler said. "I want to be remembered as the person who grasped life and turned things around and accomplished things."
Parolees like Cuyler don't often make headlines, but parolees like Donnell Williams do. Williams, a parolee with a long and violent criminal record accused of a violent crime shortly after his release, is a parole board's worst nightmare.
Paroled on Jan. 7 after serving 31⁄2 years of a 3- to 20-year sentence for a stabbing, Williams has been accused of wounding 4-year-old Zaniyah Anderson on April 9 in Benton Harbor.
Witnesses said Williams was shooting at a car whose driver he had been feuding with. Zaniyah was hit by a stray bullet and suffered spinal cord damage. She has been unable to walk since the shooting. Doctors don’t know if the paralysis is permanent, according to Barbara Brown, Zaniyah’s grandmother.
Who’s to blame?
Berrien County Prosecutor Arthur Cotter believes the parole board abdicated its responsibility in Williams’ case.
“This parole board has basically said, ‘We will no longer exercise discretion and will let people out after the minimum sentence.’” Cotter said. “If they don’t use that discretion, what do we need a parole board for? Everybody gets out after the minimum.”
Brown disagrees, and said Williams, rather than the parole board or prosecutors, is ultimately responsible for his actions.
“I’m all for people getting second chances, but I think his minimum (sentence) should’ve been higher,” Brown said of Williams. “The parole board really didn’t do anything wrong. His minimum was three years, and he did 31⁄2 years.”
Last year the corrections department had the lowest parole revocation rate since it began keeping such statistics in 1987. Revocations are down 35 percent since a record high in 2002, despite a 43 percent increase in the parole population since that year, but Cotter contends that’s nothing to brag about.
Cotter, who helped persuade a judge in March to overturn the parole of convicted murderer Steve Sanders, said Williams’ parole should have been revoked by the board in March.
Cotter said police caught Williams taking drugs in March. “Not only are they letting them out without exercising discretion, they won’t send them back to prison unless they commit another violent offense,” he said.
The DOC’s Cordell counters that parole officers have adopted a more discretionary approach that balances cost and public safety. For instance, a parolee testing positive for drugs might receive counseling or treatment in the community rather than in prison, where it’s more expensive.
“We’re not using zero tolerance for every parole violation,” Cordell said. “That’s just not reasonable.”
Stats vs. common wisdom
Cotter emphasized his concern is not nonviolent convicts such as Cuyler being paroled, but violent prisoners being released too soon and endangering the community.
Conventional wisdom is that violent criminals are more likely to commit another crime than are people convicted of property crimes when released from prison.
But an extensive analysis of corrections statistics refutes this. The August study, by the nonprofit Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, tracked the first four years convicts were released in Michigan.
Of the 76,721 prisoners the state released between 1986 and 1999, the study says 4.5 percent returned for crimes against a person. Of the 2,558 murderers released, 69 (2.7 percent) returned for crimes against a person, and 14 (0.5 percent) for another homicide. Prisoners convicted of property crimes such as burglary or larceny had the highest recidivism rate, about 45 percent (24 percent for new crimes, 21 percent for parole violations).
Released sex offenders are even scarier to the public. Laws restricting the freedom of paroled sex offenders are often proposed due to fears they’re likely to reoffend, but the study found otherwise. Of the 6,673 paroled sex offenders, 280 (4.2 percent) were returned for a crime against a person, and 204 (3.1 percent) were returned for a new sex offense.
Over all, 37 percent of the prisoners returned to prison within four years for new crimes or parole violations, according to the study. The most recent recidivism analysis by the department tracked prisoners released in 2005 and 2006 for three years. They had a 39 percent recidivism rate, Cordell said.
Barbara Levine, Citizens Alliance’s executive director, emphasizes the prisoners her group tracked were released before the 2005 creation of the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative, a recidivism reduction program credited by the corrections department with an approximately 32 percent recidivism reduction rate in high-risk parolees compared with 1998 standards.
Levine said that in 1992, after then-Governor John Engler stocked the parole board with political appointees on a “get tough on crime” mission, parole was being revoked based on a prisoner’s crime rather than his prison record or likelihood of reoffending.
Levine, who supports reinstituting credits for good behavior, which would reduce sentences, believes if a prisoner has a good record while behind bars, then he should serve the minimum sentence. “Using the nature of the offense is actually counterproductive in terms of evidence-based decision making,” Levine said.
Levine acknowledged that parole board members don’t have crystal balls and that a small number of prisoners statistically scored to have a low probability of reoffending will commit violent crimes.
“How many people do you keep in because of the risk of three people out of 100 who will recommit?” Levine asked. “There’s a limit to the power of human prediction and what’s reasonable to expect of the board.”
Tom Hendrickson, Michigan Association of Police Chiefs executive director, said he’s sympathetic to the dilemma faced by parole board members and the association doesn’t take an official stance on whether parole is too lenient or strict. But Hendrickson said early parole makes policing more difficult.
“One failure of our criminal justice system is not meting out swift punishment,” Hendrickson said. “I’m not a strong advocate of long prison sentences, but at the same time, in law enforcement we have to look at individuals, and some of these people released do commit some heinous acts.”
Paying her debt
Cuyler understands why people are suspicious of parolees. In prison, she said some inmates were halfhearted about rehabilitation, and some actually liked life behind bars. But she said she used her time productively, throwing herself into alcohol and drug rehabilitation classes, job training, parenting and self-help programs.
Cuyler now works part-time as a waitress and about 20-hour weeks as a caregiver to a friend’s elderly parent. Scheduled to complete parole in May 2011, Cuyler said she continues to attend drug treatment and self-help classes despite graduating from them. Cuyler said she continues to maintain close contact with her parole officer and counselors at The Opportunity Center in Benton Harbor, which helps parolees in Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties find jobs as part of the MPRI program.
Cuyler said there needs to be more inpatient drug rehabilitation for prisoners and parolees and more job opportunities for parolees reintegrating into society. But she said parolees who say they can’t get a job or stay crime-free are copping out. Cuyler said seeing people she knows who remain addicts reminds her of how low she sank and increases her desire to stay clean.
While drug-free for two years, Cuyler still considers herself an addict.
“At any moment I could relapse,” Cuyler said. “I’m not going to say that I will, but there’s always the possibility. Anything can happen.”
Cuyler said she partially deals with her fears by remembering she still has to make amends to her victims.
“They can accept it or they can’t,” she said. “Hopefully they do and see what I’m doing now is something completely different from who I was then.”
egoodenow@TheH-P.com
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