The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The trend certainly could continue, but the Michigan Department of Corrections has a tough path ahead to reach its goal of reducing the head count an additional 7 percent by year's end. The last time Michigan was under 45,000 inmates: 1999.

The $2 billion corrections budget is under scrutiny because Michigan incarcerates people at a higher rate and pays corrections workers higher salaries compared with other Great Lakes states. Corrections is the largest program controlled directly by state government and employs nearly one-third of all state employees.

It costs 4½ times more to incarcerate a state inmate each year than it does to educate a schoolchild.

The Democratic governor's past attempts to address sentence lengths, or the "front end" of the system, were rejected by lawmakers and law enforcement. So she's relying on the "back end," her parole board, to take a closer look at 12,000 prisoners serving beyond their earliest release date.

Granholm needs the prison population to fall so she can close more prisons and potentially lay off more than 1,000 corrections employees, saving $120 million in the next budget year.

The same day she unveiled her proposed state budget last week, she signed an executive order expanding the parole board from 10 to 15 members to accelerate the process.

"Do we expect to release all 12,000? Obviously not," Corrections spokesman John Cordell said. "Some will serve to the max because they are really unsafe."

But he notes that Michigan inmates on average serve 137 percent of their minimum sentence while the national average is 120 percent.

"The more people that are past their earliest release date we can release safely in the community, we will do so," Cordell said.

The parole board may start automatically releasing prisoners once they serve their minimum sentence assuming they complete rehabilitation programs. Serious offenders such as rapists and murderers would be excluded from the policy.

The parole board could only hold inmates beyond 120 percent of their minimum sentence if they pose a "very high" risk of re-offending.

The policy was recommended by outside experts who spent a year examining crime and punishment in Michigan. Their report released last month suggested applying the policy to prisoners sentenced after April 1. The Corrections Department is considering whether it should be retroactive to those behind bars today, too.

It's unclear if the parole board will be forced to follow the policy, but the Granholm administration says the board is being more aggressive regardless.

Nearly 71 percent of prisoners were approved for parole at their earliest release date in 2008, the highest in Granholm's six years in office.

The parole board has reduced the overall number of inmates serving past their earliest release date by 10 percent since last summer. Throw in fewer parole revocations, a 9 percent drop in prison admissions in 2008 and the first decline in felony convictions in nine years, and it's easy to see why the prison population has fallen for seven straight months.

But the population can be fickle. If there's just one high-profile crime involving a parolee, all bets are off and Granholm's plan will be jeopardized.

When Patrick Selepak was mistakenly released from prison in 2006 and killed three people in Macomb and Genesee counties, the justice system responded with more arrests, more prison sentences, fewer paroles and more parole revocations, according to the state. The prison population exploded 13 straight months before declining.

Then in 2007, parolee and registered sex offender Matthew Macon killed at least two women in Lansing and was suspected in the deaths of up to five others. That led to eight straight months of growth in the prison population.

Other factors — such as whether the number of prison intakes starts creeping up again and if there will be enough money to hire more officers to monitor parolees — could complicate Granholm's corrections plan, too.

Finally, there's bound to be a limit when reviewing the 12,000 inmates who have served their minimum sentence because as the pool declines, the remaining prisoners could be sex offenders and violent criminals the parole board is hesitant to release.

Corrections Director Patricia Caruso said she expects the prison population to continue to decline, resulting in the first corrections layoffs in the Granholm era.

She said the department is decreasing the population "safely and appropriately."

"We are not opening the door and pushing people out of the prison," Caruso said.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090216/FREE/902169997