« Justice Can Be Unequal In Reservation Crimes. On Tribal Land, Tragiic Arson Leads to a Life Sentence | Main | Time Magazine: "De-Criminalizing Mental Illness" »
August 14, 2007
Former Director of MI DOC: Behind bars, no one gets rehabilitated; costs unsustainable
Published August 12, 2007
Robert Brown Jr. of Lansing was director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, 1984-1991.
Brown: Prevention, not prisons, best serves public safety
Behind bars, no one gets rehabilitated; costs unsustainable
The current debate over prison spending misses a fundamental point. Crime prevention is the best protection for public safety!
Prevention includes pre- and post-natal care, early childhood education, after-school programs, mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Michigan's corrections budget is $2 billion because our prisoner count has grown to 51,000. To significantly reduce spending, we must reduce the prisoner population. And concerns that sentencing fewer people to prison and releasing more on
parole would threaten public safety give prisons too much credit.
The impact of prisons on crime rates is debatable. In 1984, Michigan prisons held fewer than 15,000 people. Our incarceration rate was 158 per 100,000 citizens and our violent crime rate was 760 per 100,000. By 1992, the incarceration rate had climbed to 408 and the population was nearly 39,000. However, the crime rate actually increased to 770.
Offenders are sent to prison as punishment and to be segregated from the community. Prisons are not designed to "rehabilitate." Making education, vocational training and treatment available to prisoners is important, but such programs can be delivered much less expensively in the community.
Consider these facts:
Many people who repeatedly commit property or public order offenses have substance abuse or mental health problems - or simply lack the skills to find employment. More punishment will not enable them to function as law-abiding citizens. Addressing their problems before they offend is a much better investment.
Sixty percent of annual prison commitments are probation or parole violators.
To reduce these numbers, the Michigan Department of Corrections is moving away from sheer surveillance of people under community supervision. It is marshalling community resources through the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative to improve parolees' chances of success.
Many prisoners serving long sentences for crimes against people are in prison for the first time and are unlikely to re-offend. They receive no credit for good behavior and are often denied parole. We must demand just punishment and keep in mind research confirms that more time served has no impact on recidivism. Inappropriately, we have made prison stays longer and longer.
Imprisoning fewer people who commit property crimes and other non-assaultive offenses will not threaten public safety. Nor will paroling more people who have finished their minimum terms.
Of people paroled in Michigan in 2000, 16.3 percent were returned to prison for new crimes. Only 2.8 percent were convicted of crimes against persons. Of the 11,000 people paroled in 2003, 70 percent had not returned to prison within two years for any reason.
If we really care about crime prevention, we will stop paying for more prisons than we need. We will invest instead in the universities that make our state great, the services that vulnerable citizens need badly and, above all, the children we can keep from becoming the next generation of prisoners.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070812/OPINION02/708120497/1085/opinion
Posted by lois at August 14, 2007 09:29 AM