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| Michigan prison budget reforms |
| By Peter Luke |
| Published: 04/13/2009 |
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Gov. Jennifer Granholm last year offered Michigan business a deal. She would push for overdue cuts in prison spending and split the proceeds with employers in the form of tax cuts. The 2010 Michigan Department of Corrections budget approved by the House on April 2 represents a down payment on that offer with an unprecedented $150 million cut in prison operations. It's made possible through the accelerated parole by Sept. 30 of more than 3,500 inmates who have served more than their minimum sentences. A third of the savings from closing closing prisons and eliminating 1,000 positions is targeted for increased corrections spending on community services. Those services include parole and probation agents, programs to keep parolees out of prison and 2,800 ankle tethers for parolees monitored through global positioning systems. Aside from the financial savings, the spending plan represents a big policy change. A corrections budget that spends less on the institutions of prisons and more on community-based programming challenges the long-held assumption that public safety is ensured by maximizing the time felons spend behind bars. That assumption has long carried a steep price and put Michigan outside of the norm compared to its neighbors. Average length of stay in a Michigan prison has been 50 percent higher than the Great Lakes average, 44 months compared to 30 months. While the average annual cost per inmate is about the same, the average cost of a prison term in Michigan was $106,000 compared to $70,000 among all Great Lakes states. Absent any change in policy, Michigan's prisons costs were projected to grow by another $600 million, to $2.6 billion in 2012. What was once a political issue of how "tough" Michigan could be in its corrections policy no matter the cost has morphed into an issue of fiscal conservatism the business community can easily translate into lower taxes. Savings in the House-passed budget are achieved by adopting a recommendation this year by the Council of State Governments that recommended parole for inmates who have served their minimum sentences unless it's evident that they pose a risk. That is what an expanded and reconfigured parole board appointed by Granholm is doing. That is how the inmate population will be reduced and how prisons will be shuttered. Even with these changes, Michigan will house some 45,000 inmates next fiscal year. That's 10,000 fewer than what the department at one time projected for 2012, but it's still 10,000 more than the average of Great Lakes states. As the savings from prompt parole are going into more parole services, there isn't a lot left to begin whacking at the 22-percent surcharge to the Michigan Business Tax that employers want to eliminate. Finding more savings will require still more reform that business has said it supports, but key lawmakers may not. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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