There was discussion on the radio today about reducing Michigan’s prisoner population—and no, it wasn’t Neo-Cons pushing wholesale capital punishment. It was the director of the Department of Corrections talking about early release for low-risk prisoners. I hope this idea gets some legs; reducing our prison population is way overdue.
We could save $150,000,000 per year by reducing the prison population by 20%, without compromising public safety. The parole board automatically denies consideration for parole for many classes of prisoner. Our incarceration rate is too high and climbing. The parole board routinely denies parole despite solid evidence that most first-offenders who are convicted of CSC, Murder 2, VCSA, and many other crimes have very low recidivism rates. A conscientious parole board would sort out the good risks from the bad ones, not refuse to consider anyone who was convicted of certain crimes. “Life means life” is not sound public policy it’s a political mantra. For more information visit sites such as:
http://www.justicepolicy.org/
http://www.capps-mi.org/
https://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=35
If we cut our prison population from 50,000 to 40,000, the savings would be $300,000,000 at $30,000 per prisoner. Pour half of that savings into prisoner re-entry programs and we would still save $150,000,000–and greatly improve the social fabric in our state.
Think about it: In 1984 Michigan had 15,000 prisoners and the population was 9.2 million. Today we have 50,000 Michigan prisoners and the population is 10.2 million. Do you feel three times as safe as you did in 1984? I think we could reduce the prison population by two thirds without compromising public safety, but let’s start with a modest 20%.
Unfortunately, our parole board members are gutless bureaucrats who refuse to do the job they were hired for and our legislators are knee-jerk jerks who can’t see beyond the next election. They are afraid to tell the public anything it does not want to hear.
I don’t have much hope that Michigan will adopt any sane corrections policies in my lifetime; but if you are educated far above average, and are capable of understanding what our government cannot, you might want to give this some thought.
John B. Payne, Attorney
Dearborn, Michigan; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(800) 220 7200
FAX (313) 562 3340
©2008 John B. Payne, Attorney
www.law-business.com
Posted by lawman83 