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| Cost of ’4 strikes’ plan drops, still means millions more for prisons |
| By bridgemi.com - Derek Melot |
| Published: 05/10/2012 |
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Michigan -- When Attorney General Bill Schuette first proposed his “4 strikes and you’re out” plan for repeat felons, the Michigan Department of Corrections said the additional costs to the prison system could exceed $1 billion per year by the middle of the 21st century. New calculations by the department, incorporated into a Senate Fiscal Agency analysis, however, now peg the upper end at $250 million per year in the 25th year of the program’s operations. The SFA analyst on Senate Bill 1109, filed May 2, expects an even lower figure — $188 million in year 25. “My goal with this bill, which I think is our goal, is to keep violent offenders off the street — a message of safety and a message of security to citizens in your districts and citizens across the state of Michigan,” Schuette told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. “There comes a point that you have prisons and what do you build them for,” he added, “but to keep violent offenders behind bars.” “(Mandatory minimums) are a one-size-fits-all approach that prevents judges from doing their jobs when it comes to imposing individualized sentences,” counters Jim Samuels of the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, “and an approach that has proved to be ineffective in reducing crime rates. “All these man-min penalties do is drive up incarceration rates,” added the Big Rapids attorney who is president of CDAM, an advocacy group. “It is ironic that Michigan would consider such an alternative when others in the Legislature and executive branch are searching for more efficient and effective corrections alternatives.” MDOC spokesman Russ Marlan said the differences in cost projections were a function of how many beds the department would need to imprison felons covered under the proposal. For example, MDOC originally thought it might need about 18,000 more beds to deal with the felons sentenced to longer terms than they receive now. In the latest figures, that need is revised to just under 7,400 beds by the 25-year mark of the program. Read More. |
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