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February 11, 2007
MI: Governor Wants Release of Prisoners
February 9, 2007
Granholm wants prisoner release
Governor proposes to reduce jail population 10 percent to save the state about $122 million.
Charlie Cain And Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- The state would throw open the prison doors for as many as 5,500 sick, elderly and nonviolent inmates under a plan proposed Thursday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
That would reduce the state's 51,000 inmate count 10 percent and save the state $122 million.
About $30 million of that savings would be used to beef up probation and parole staff and community reentry programs.
"We need to decide who we're afraid of and who we're mad at," said Corrections director Patricia Caruso. "We need to be sure the people we're afraid of are locked up. Are we mad enough to spend an average of $33,000 a year to lock them up until they die or finish every last day of their sentence."
The plan calls for the release starting Oct. 1 of 3,400 prisoners who are serving time for such crimes as drug offenses, larceny, bad checks, home invasion and car theft. They would be placed in halfway houses and supervised with electronic tethers.
An additional 1,600 inmates would be paroled by expanding a pilot re-entry initiative and another 500 convicted felons could see their sentences commuted. These are elderly and medically fragile inmates or foreign nationals who could be deported to their native countries.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the state should approach this early release with caution.
"Even if they're old and sick, if they're career criminals, then they literally have nothing to lose," Bouchard said. "If you're releasing prisoners for budget reasons that flies in the face of justice."
State corrections officials say Michigan locks up more felons than neighboring states and sees no appreciable difference in crime rates. Of the 6,500 inmates who came into Michigan prisons last year, 55 percent were convicted of nonviolent offenses.
The governor also proposed spending $14 million to put more police officers on the streets. The state has lost 1,600 police officers in the last six years largely due to budget cutbacks.
Royal Oak has trimmed its police department by 15 percent in the last five years, cutting back on its undercover drug enforcement unit and juvenile crimes bureau.
"It sounds very good, we're going to keep our eye on it," said City Manager Thomas Hoover of Granholm's proposal. "We want to make sure Royal Oak is getting its fair share from the state."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070209/METRO/702090368/1
Posted by lois at February 11, 2007 09:37 PM