The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Theprisons and camps house about 4,600 inmates who will be transferred to other facilities if they still are incarcerated at the time of the closures. The Democratic governor wants to reduce the prison population of 47,550 to below 45,000 by Oct. 1, the lowest head count since 1999.

Critics warned the public is in danger and said the state's budget problems are driving corrections policies when it should be the other way around.

"I'm just not that comfortable letting this many convicted felons out into a poor economy," said Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, an Ishpeming Democrat who is "furious" prison facilities in his Upper Peninsula district will be closed.

Corrections Director Patricia Caruso, however, said public safety is the agency's top priority.

"But just as we are committed to the public's safety, we are also committed to spending their tax dollars wisely and in ways that make sense," she said. "The reorganization we are unveiling today makes sense from a public safety and budget perspective."

Prisons in Muskegon west of Grand Rapids, Standish north of Bay City and Kincheloe in the eastern U.P. will close between Aug. 1 and Nov. 30.

Prison camps to be closed in the same time period are in Shingleton, Painesdale and Iron River in the U.P.; Grayling in the northern Lower Peninsula; and White Lake in Oakland County north of Detroit.

The Standish prison is maximum-security, meaning every prisoner must have his own cell.

Corrections officials have decided some maximum-security inmates can share cells, drawing the ire of corrections officers who fear the change will endanger guards and inmates. The department will convert the Alger Maximum Correctional Facility in Munising to a level IV prison so it can bunk two prisoners per cell, nearly doubling the prison's bed capacity.

The prison closings come as tax revenues are continuing to slide in a state hit hard by the recession and the auto industry's woes. Michigan faces a budget shortfall of at least $1.7 billion in the fiscal year that starts in October, and there is not enough federal stimulus cash to offset all the lost revenue.

Because the governor's '09-10 budget proposal outlined in February promised unspecified prison closings, communities and corrections workers across the state had been anxiously awaiting Friday morning's announcement. The state also closed two prisons and a camp this fiscal year.

The prison population has fallen by 4,000 inmates since peaking at a record 51,454 in December 2006. Officials credit the decline to more paroles and commutations, fewer felony convictions and prison intakes, more GPS monitoring and an expanded program to keep parolees from committing new crimes. The number of criminals entering prisons dropped 9 percent in 2008, officials said, and was down 4 percent through April of this year.

Granholm's newly expanded parole board is releasing more inmates who have served beyond their minimum sentence.

Corrections spokesman John Cordell acknowledged the department is shrinking the prison population on a quicker timetable because of the budget crisis, but he said only offenders posing the "lowest possible risk" are being paroled sooner than they might otherwise have been.

The parole board is following recommendations from independent experts who found Michigan inmates stay in prison longer than is the case nationally despite receiving similar minimum sentences. Key Democratic and Republican lawmakers backed the parole changes in January but have not yet put those requirements into law.

Mel Grieshaber, executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization, a labor union for corrections officers, said too many inmates are being let out too quickly.

"The public better lock their doors," he said.

While prison closures in recent years led to few layoffs because workers filled vacancies at other facilities, there will be fewer openings to apply for this time, Grieshaber said.

"There are undoubtedly going to layoffs - hundreds perhaps," he said.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/06/05/ap6511712.html