Cortni Moore
April 28, 2011
JRN 200
Overspending in the Michigan Department of Corrections calls for effective reform.
Word Count: 797
East Lansing - The Michigan Department of Corrections proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2012 continues to be $two billion and to consume about 25 percent of all general spending.
The state can reduce the amount of spending by implementing Truth and Sentencing Laws like other neighboring states have, decrease personnel costs, lowering the amount of money spent on inmate medications, and reducing or sticking to the minimum sentencing for some non-violent offenders.
Phillip D. Schertzing, MSU Criminal Justice Professor and Michigan State Police retiree, said the economy is what’s causing a change. The government policies we have been under were based off a better economy in the past, like the Reagan and Clinton administrations, which established the harsher correctional policies. Now, he said, People are beginning to analyze whether we can afford the strict policies that have a price tag attached to them.
“It’s all politics. No politician wants to seem soft on crime,” said Jennifer Cobbina, Ph.D., 28, Michigan State University Criminal Justice professor. The government spends more money when it may not be necessary, incarcerating non-violent criminals for longer than their minimum sentencing, in order to appease the public, she said.
The National Governors’ Association is cited on CityLinc.org reporting that, every year more than 10,000 out of 50,000 inmates are released and 86 percent of these offenders (about 9,000) are released under parole supervision. About 44 percent of those in the program (about 3900 offenders) will return to prison within two years. Cobbina said she believes our government spends too much money in the prison system for the recidivism rate to be so high.
Many people have expressed the interest in implementing the “Good Time Credit”, giving inmates a chance to display “good behavior” by law meaning “exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations”, so that the inmate may be released earlier than initially sentenced, according to Families Against Mandatory Minimums. Establishing these laws would lessen the sentences of those non-violent offenders whom longer sentencing might not make a difference in the well being of society or the welfare of themselves.
“I think you have to give Corrections administrators the ability to control the inmate population, by having the Good Time Credit available for them to take and to give. I think it’s foolish to eliminate those, because you’re taking a tool away from correctional administrators. You’re not really punishing the inmates your punishing the tax payer and the correctional administrator by taking away those Good Time Credits,” said Daniel Durkee, Lansing Community College Criminal Justice professor, Correctional program coordinator and Jail Administrator retiree of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.
Opposing the reinstatement of these laws, Eaton County Prosecutor, Jeff Sauder said, “We've been down this ‘good time’ road before. Our citizens
were so confused and outraged by deceptive sentences and
revolving prison doors that in 1978 they passed a citizens initiative to
ban those credits, approving the measure by a margin of more than
70%. Voters have clearly rejected early release as being common sense.”
The Citizens Research Council of Michigan projected that about $500 million could be found in the Correctional Department if the prison population can be lowered, personnel costs reduced and the department operations become more efficient, reported the Lansing State Journal in an article on April, 11.
These funds could potentially be used to cover other areas in the budget like education. “If they can save $500 million it should be put into education. That’s a no-brainer. We would get a lot more for our money in education than in corrections,” said Durkee. While Cobbina said she believes the money should be kept in the Correctional Department to better assist offenders once they are released, job programs, drug programs. “I am for cutting costs and using that portion specifically to meet needs,” she said.
Durkee said he believes the prison system and the reasons we imprison people should be “looked at.” He said that if we can decriminalize certain controlled substances we could put a possible a 15 percent to 20 percent dent in the prison population over night.
Over the past 40 years, the Citizens Allianceon Prisons and Public Spending, stated the general Michigan population growing by about 6.7 percent, while the Prison system in Michigan has grown about 191 percent. Schertzing said, “This should be a wake-up call. What are we accomplishing with such an exploding rate of the prison population?”
With the recent 2011 budget cuts from Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, should we continue to spend $two billion a year on a correctional system that isn’t only being somewhat counter-productive with the high recidivism rates, but with the right strategy, the system can effectively be reformed?
