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January 07, 2009
MI: State's policy has imprisoned its future
State's policy has imprisoned its future
A Lansing State Journal editorial
January 1, 2009
Before lawmakers return to Lansing to begin their work, they should take a pledge:
"I will not leave the Capitol at the end of 2009 without enacting
fundamental reforms in how Michigan handles prisoners."
Lawmakers' performance on this issue will reverberate through the rest of state government. Corrections reform gives Michigan a chance to invest in its people and public services. Failure means Michigan residents will see a state government impotent to help them.
Michigan is the Midwest's king of incarceration. The state has about 50,000 prisoners and another 70,000-plus on parole or probation. Michigan's incarceration rate towers over those of neighboring states.
To house prisoners, the state has opened 35 prisons since 1985 alone, notes the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending. The Department of Corrections employs more than 17,000 people, or about one in every three on the state payroll. It costs taxpayers $34,000 a year to house a prisoner.
To do all this, DOC consumes between $1.9 billion and $2 billion a year from the state's general fund. This burden has long hampered the state's ability to ramp up key investments, such as higher education. And that has been when the state has had $9 billion or so to spend.
For the coming 2010 budget year, the Senate Fiscal Agency projects only $7.8 billion available.
Do the math. If Michigan spent $1.9 billion on corrections for 2010, that would leave $5.9 billion. Combine the current spending rates for higher education, Human Services and Community Health and you quickly sail to the $6 billion mark.
And that's a budget deficit - even before you've tried to fund everything else the state does.
Now, you will hear from lawmakers who will say that Michigan cannot afford to go soft on criminals. They will say that increased paroles or early releases will lead to more crime, more mayhem, more victims.
Yes, there have been tragedies in which former inmates preyed on the
law-abiding.
These events, however, don't alter the fact that Michigan is imprisoning its future with the DOC.
These events don't explain why other Midwestern states have been able to avoid chaos in the streets even with much smaller prison complexes.
These events don't explain how keeping tens of thousands of people behind bars will make Michigan an engine in the 21st century economy.
Lawmakers can tackle prison reform and give this state hope, or they can stand idle and leave Michigan a hostage to its prison policies.
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090101/OPINION01/901010321/1086/OPINION01
Posted by lois at January 7, 2009 08:43 PM