Tammy Michigan, Probation and Parole

Some lawmakers still don’t understand why cash-strapped Michigan is keeping foreign criminals behind bars rather than handing them off to the federal government for immediate deportation.  This report from the Lansing State Journal.

Legislation sponsored by state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith would let state inmates with deportation orders be moved to federal custody after serving at least half their minimum sentence. A House subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the measure Tuesday.”Why should our taxpayers be paying for the care, housing and feeding of prisoners for whom the federal government has papers sending them home?” asked Smith …

Michigan now requires all prisoners to serve their minimum term before being considered for release.  Smith’s bill would relax the law so some immigrant inmates here illegally or whose conviction requires deportation are turned over to federal authorities earlier. Murderers, rapists and habitual offenders couldn’t qualify for an early exit from the country.

The measure has hit resistance from [some] lawmakers who worry that everything from fairness issues to the complexities of immigration law make it unworkable.  Rep. John Proos said it’s unfair to release foreigners early when Americans in the state’s prisons would have to serve longer. “What is the response by the victims and their families who now see justice denied by one-half?” he asked …

As of March, Michigan had 156 inmates with final deportation orders who could be freed immediately to be shipped home by the federal government if Smith’s legislation is approved, her office said. Sixty-six were from Mexico, 17 from Cuba and 11 from Iraq.  Another 55 prisoners potentially could be handed over if a final deportation order is entered. Hundreds of other foreign nationals are serving time for murder or criminal sexual conduct, were sentenced as habitual offenders or haven’t got halfway through their sentence, so they would be ineligible for the switch …

The legislation is modeled after programs in New York, Arizona and – most recently – Rhode Island. The states work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to identify and deport convicts if their offenses are considered nonviolent. The governors of Washington and New Hampshire recently pitched similar plans.ICE says New York has saved $140 million since 1995 through its criminal deportation program. Arizona has saved $18 million in detention costs since 2005. More than 114,000 criminals were removed from the U.S. in the past fiscal year.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Economic Issues, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens, Michigan

State Rep. John Proos said Gov. Granholm is putting public safety at risk through a state corrections budget that releases prisoners to make up for budget shortfalls.  Reported by the Herald-Palladium.

Proos wrote in a press release. “The governor has predicated her corrections budget on releasing nearly 3,886 prisoners. That is unacceptable, especially without first considering reforms and cost-saving measures.”  The governor should look for opportunities for reform, Proos said. Instead, her budget for the Michigan Department of Corrections would release 147 prisoners a day until Oct. 1, he said …

John Cordell, public information officer for the corrections department, said the department carefully evaluates prisoners before releasing them.   “Can we ensure that none of these 3,000 prisoners ever commit a crime again? No, we can’t,” Cordell said. “Nor can we assure the 12,000 prisoners we parole every year won’t commit a crime again.”    But the department is doing all it can to screen prisoners and to have support and re-entry systems in place to help them “become better citizens, viable and productive citizens,” Cordell said. That includes increasing the number of parole officers, increasing “real-time GPS tethers so we can accurately track where offenders are” and increasing funding for re-entry services from $25 million to $50 million in the next fiscal year, he said.

Proos said the state could save: $30 million by stopping corrections employee pay raises; $60 million by reducing overtime offered; $5 million by consolidating administrative offices; $3.5 million by streamlining transportation of prisoners; and $30 million by reducing cost of food services.   The June 2008 Auditor General’s report states: “The Department of Corrections should analyze the potential outcomes of hiring private contractors to provide prisoner meals at its correctional facilities … Based on these costs per prisoner per day, we estimate that Michigan could save from $10.2 million to $38 million annually” …

Cordell said the department has cut nearly $500 million from its budget since fiscal 2001-02. Releasing between 3,500 and 4,000 prisoners – all of whom are “past their minimum sentence date” – will save some $125 million in the next budget year, he added.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Economic Issues, Food Services, Michigan, Probation and Parole

The Tuscola Residential Re-Entry Program, 30 miles east of Saginaw. Housing 160 parolees, it’s the first large-scale effort by the Michigan Department of Corrections to change how assaultive offenders think.  This story from the Detroit Free Press.

By giving the Parole Board a way to release higher-risk inmates like Nealous, the Tuscola program will help the state shed 3,500 prison beds and control its $2-billion corrections budget. To do that, the board must release more people, and more of those released must stay out.  Up to now, prisoner re-entry in Michigan has focused on jobs, housing and other essential services. But to succeed in the world, some parolees must also learn to consider and respect others, control their impulses and take responsibility.

Unfortunately, Michigan prisons have become virtual warehouses. They’ve done little to help prisoners, many of whom have been abused themselves, develop as people. Too often, the department even discourages inmates’ efforts to improve by cutting activities like art and resisting their initiatives for inmate-run programs. Corrections must rethink its mission if it wants to lower recidivism rates. Other prison systems like Kansas have made so-called cognitive restructuring a major part of the program. In Kansas, such efforts have helped cut recidivism in half …

The 11-week program includes 90-minute group sessions that focus on domestic violence, substance abuse, parenting and criminal thinking. Three times a week, groups of 15 to 20 men talk through the events and emotions that led them to abusive behavior and bad choices. While in the program, the men cannot leave except to work. Nor can they have visitors …

Costing $3.8 million a year, the Tuscola program will take more than 700 parolees this year. They’re men the state otherwise would not release, or would send back to prison. Traditionally, up to half of the 12,000 people a year released from prison go back, and the failure rates for high-risk inmates … are greater. But if even half of the parolees going through Tuscola stay out of prison, it will save taxpayers nearly $13 million a year.

vericatrajkova Inmate Programs, Michigan, Probation and Parole, Re-Entry, Recidivism

Calhoun County MI Juvenile Home administrators say while their building is structurally sound, it is so far outdated that replacing it would be better than continuing to make repairs.  This 3:00 video is from Battle Creek Enquirer.

vericatrajkova Juvenile Justice, MI Calhoun County, Prison and Jail Construction

For as little as $8 a day, some Ingham County MI Jail inmates now can sleep in their own beds.  This report from the Lansing State Journal.

A new program, which began Jan. 19, allows qualified nonviolent inmates to choose house arrest, their whereabouts monitored 24 hours a day by an electronic tether they wear, rather than be held at the jail.   And there is no direct cost to the county. The program is funded through fees paid by offenders who use it.   It is intended to help ease overcrowding at the Mason facility – a longtime problem that typically leads to hundreds of inmates being released each month before they complete their sentences.   “It enables us to free up more beds for the people who truly need to be in jail,” said Ingham County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Greg Harless.

Qualified inmates who have served 50 percent of their sentence can opt for electronic monitoring at home. Also eligible are qualified inmates waiting for their cases to go to court. A judge now can set a bond or give the person the option to pay for electronic monitoring.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Electronic Monitoring, MI Ingham County

Michigan Department of Corrections Director Patricia Caruso has approved a plan to relocate some 275 higher-security-level, mentally ill adult males to the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School, with the transition to be completed by May 1.

The MDOC will relocate the adult males to the Maxey campus from the Huron Valley Complex in Ypsilanti … The decision was made about three weeks after a public hearing in Green Oak Township, where some 20 residents vehemently opposed the plan. The hearing was essentially a courtesy because the state isn’t beholden to local laws … MDOC spokesman John Cordell said the department took the public’s concerns into consideration, but that the state couldn’t ignore related cost savings and an opportunity to make greater use of the facility …

Cordell said the MDOC will consider taking measures requested by residents, which could include a community call list in case of a security breach or escape from the campus. Plans are already in place to contact area schools and day-care centers in the event of an escape.”We need to assure the citizens feel a sense of security once we’re there. So we’ll work with the citizen groups if they’re interested,” he said.

More information in the Livingston Daily.

vericatrajkova Juvenile Justice, Mental Health Issues, Michigan

An extra parole agent is being squeezed into Lenawee County judicial building offices to help with the county’s share of 4,000 additional inmates to be released from Michigan prisons by Oct. 1.

Every county in Michigan is likely to see changes in local parole office staffing as the prisoner reduction program is geared up, said John Cordell, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.  Plans to parole an additional 3,500 to 4,000 inmates were announced in February by Gov. Jennifer Granholm as part of her effort to tame a projected budget deficit in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Assignment of another parole agent to Lenawee County to help oversee additional high-risk parolees was confirmed Wednesday, said James Olsen, head of the probation and parole office in Lenawee County.   Olsen asked the Lenawee County Commission’s criminal justice committee to support an office remodeling project to make room for the new agent. The proposal also calls for revamping the entrance to the probation offices to improve security.   The committee voted to recommend the $3,500 project to the full commission.  Olsen said he expects the new agent to arrive in about three months.

It is not clear how soon additional parolees will be moving into Michigan communities, Cordell said. A pool of 12,000 prisoners who have served their minimum sentences but were denied release are being reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine which of them can be safely returned to their communities, he said.

There is more detail in the full article at the Adrian Daily Telegram.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Economic Issues, MI Lenawee County, Probation and Parole

The legislatures in both Nebraska and Michigan are reviewing proposals to end Life Without Parole sentences for convicted youths.

State Sen. Brenda Council of Omaha [Nebraska], who introduced the measure, argued that such a term is akin to a death sentence and doesn’t take into account that juvenile brains are not fully developed to make rational decisions.  Her proposal, Legislative Bill 307, would make the sentence 50 years to life for juveniles who are 16 or 17 when they commit a first-degree murder. Juveniles under 16 would face a sentence of 40 years to life.  The law would not apply to the 24 people now in prison who were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles. It also would not guarantee parole, just a hearing.

[In Michigan] the youthful-offender parole reform bill (SB 174), which is tied to a bill to end juvenile life-without-parole sentences (SB 173), passed the House last year and was reintroduced this session in the Senate. The bills are now before the Judiciary Committee, which has yet to take action on the legislation.  The measure would allow a parole board, after 10 years, to evaluate the cases of some juvenile offenders who are serving sentences of more than 10 years or serving life sentences or life without parole. Currently, those serving life are eligible for parole after 15 years; those serving life without parole are ineligible.

But passage of either legislation seems slim.

Several [Nebraska] state senators argued that such a change would be getting soft on crime … saying that the criminal justice system already takes into account factors like the age of a killer. Nebraska lawmakers adjourned before voting on whether to advance the bill. Council acknowledged that “it didn’t look good” after the day’s debate.

Michigan State Sen. Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt), who serves on the Judiciary Committee, is not in favor of passing the juvenile sentencing bills out of his committee. The lawmaker … noted that the juvenile sentencing package is unlikely to advance through the Judiciary Committee “until someone shows us why it should move.”   Cropsey said that increasing parole review for juveniles serving long sentences and ending life without parole for juveniles is unlikely to reduce the prison population.  “You can talk about it theoretically, but when you start talking about the facts of a case, when you open up a file and look at the victims, you think, ‘This is not a good risk.‘”  Parole boards are unlikely to release people convicted of such horrible crimes, he said, and the governor has the power to commute sentences in rare cases where appropriate.

The debates are covered in articles from the Omaha World-Herald and the Michigan Messenger.

vericatrajkova Juvenile Justice, Michigan, Nebraska, Sentencing

A program that helped Jackson County MI youth get back on track for nearly a decade is expected to close in June, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

The Juvenile Community Corrections Program, which provided additional guidance to at-risk teens in the juvenile corrections system, saw its grant funding dwindle in recent years, said Teresa Hawkins, executive director of the county Youth Center.   It received $76,000 when it started in late 1999, but that funding fell to $10,000 for the 2007-08 fiscal year, Hawkins said.

A commenter on the newspaper story notes:

Everything I’ve learned about this program, from the parents of these kids to the professionals, is that it made a big difference. I understand that it also won awards. And, it provided a big “bang for the buck” in terms of benefit vs. cost. But, with shrinking county funds the administrator, his assistant, and the board are bound to be eliminating prevention programs no matter how successful they’ve been.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, Juvenile Justice, MI Jackson County, Michigan