Proposal to release Michigan prisoners early runs into strong opposition from prosecutors

Early inmate release plan riles Mich. prosecutors

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposal to let an estimated 7,500 Michigan inmates out of prison early and save the cash-strapped state money is coming under fire from prosecutors worried about public safety.

Granholm wants to cut more than $130 million from state prison spending in the budget year starting Oct. 1. Most of the savings would come by allowing inmates to shave time off their sentences for good behavior and letting more offenders be released under electronic monitoring outside of prison.

“It’s bad public policy,” Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick said. “I think it makes the citizens of our state less safe.”

Lawmakers also began hearings on Granholm’s latest corrections budget proposal Tuesday. The proposed $2 billion spending plan ran into opposition from Republicans, with Sen. Alan Cropsey of DeWitt noting the prison budget has increased in recent years while the inmate population and number of prison employees has declined.

Republicans say Granholm’s strategy of reducing the prison population hasn’t resulted in the expected savings and that other cost issues could be addressed without releasing more inmates.

The Granholm administration counters that Michigan has locked up prisoners at higher rates or for longer periods than some surrounding states, contributing to the system’s overall cost.

The Democratic governor’s administration says most states and Michigan county jails already have so-called “good time” or sentencing credit policies and it makes sense to use similar policies in Michigan’s state prison system.

“Adopting this would make us consistent with how the sheriffs in the state operate and how virtually every other state in the country operates,” said Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Marlan says research shows there’s no correlation between the amount of time an inmate spends in prison and their chances of committing another crime after they are released.

Granholm, who can’t run for office again in 2010 because of term limits, already has taken several steps to decrease Michigan’s prison population. State prisons held nearly 51,500 inmates in 2006. That’s dropping to 45,200 this year through more paroles and commutations, a drop in felony convictions and prison intakes, and an expanded program to keep parolees from committing new crimes.

Granholm’s proposal made last week may be her most aggressive yet aimed at trimming the prison population. Her administration says the changes would reduce the prison population by another 17 percent within four to six months of becoming law. That would allow the state to close four or five prisons, starting as early as October.

Granholm’s administration says the plan would come with some safeguards. More than $3 million would be added to hire more parole officers to oversee paroled sex offenders. More than $1 million would be added to community corrections programs that provide alternatives to more expensive incarceration.

Republicans say those safeguards aren’t nearly enough.

“The core function of government is to protect people,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, a Republican from Rochester. “You can’t solve the corrections problem simply by pushing prisoners out into the streets. We understand we have to find savings in corrections, but we can’t do that at the expense of the people we represent.”

Bishop is seeking the Republican nomination to run for attorney general in 2010. His Republican opposition, former appeals court judge Bill Schuette, also says the “good time” system is bad policy for Michigan.

The proposal is contained in legislation introduced by Rep. George Cushingberry, D-Detroit. It faces an uphill climb to become law.

Michigan began phasing out “good time” policies from its state prison system in the late 1970s. An analysis from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency says it appears 75 percent of the lawmakers in both the state House and Senate would have to vote in favor of the new proposal for it to become law because it would amend or repeal part of a voter-approved initiative. The Granholm administration says that may be subject to legal debate, or the bills could be altered to avoid the need of for a super majority.

An inmate sentenced to a minimum of 10 years could be released in roughly eight years under the plan. But prosecutors say the plan, which would gut the state’s truth in sentencing laws, would leave the public guessing about the length of time prisoners would be behind bars. Credits for “good time” could be given or taken away throughout an inmate’s stay in prison.

“It’s that lack of clarity, lack of transparency, lack of truth that is really unfortunate and would bring us back to the days when there just wasn’t any level of confidence in the criminal justice system,” Burdick said.