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December 20, 2006
MI: Granholm, Legislature Must Work Toward Refrom on Prisons in '07
Published December 19, 2006
Prisons: Granholm, Legislature must work toward reform, savings in '07 A Lansing State Journal editorial
Michigan no longer can afford to ignore the costs - budgetary and human - of its prison policies. Fortunately, the results of the November election may have created the circumstances for a bipartisan effort to reevaluate what Michigan does and whether it works.
What Michigan has done lately is pretty simple: Lock people up for as long as possible.
No doubt that has prevented some crimes by repeat offenders. But this policy is imposing huge costs on the state, costs that are hurting Michigan.
As noted earlier this year by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, the Corrections Department is the only state department that got more general fund money in fiscal 2005 than in fiscal 2001. Corrections accounts for half the state employees paid out of the general fund.
And, CRC says that even with a falling crime rate, Michigan's imprisonment rate is above the regional average; 40 percent higher.
In the last year, Michigan has learned a few things politically.
First, the public wants real investments in higher and K-12 education. Second, there remain real needs in the realm of child protection and health care. Third, Michigan can't expect a huge surge of new tax revenue soon, either through raised rates or a resurgent economy.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm will enter 2007 budget negotiations secure in her second term and with a Legislature in divided partisan hands. How will they respond to calls to invest in, for example, education and child protection?
Out of the state's major general fund accounts, only Corrections offers any real possibility for significant savings to fund investments elsewhere - and only if Granholm and the Legislature move beyond the politics of "imprisonment first and last."
This isn't just about cutting spending, but about spending more wisely. Michigan has community corrections, prisoner reentry programs and other efforts to cut recidivism or keep petty offenders out of state prisons.
These are exactly the programs that need more support, because as much as you spend on them, it's still cheaper than sticking someone in prison.
With a new Democratic majority, the state House should be more amenable to Granholm ideas. Also, we have found state Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, to be supportive of nuanced corrections policy as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Michigan needs fewer people in prison and more people working as productive citizens. That goal should be the basis of a bipartisan policy at the Capitol in 2007.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061219/OPINION01/612190310/1
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Posted by lois at December 20, 2006 09:23 AM