MI- New parole supervision tools seem to be helping

9-20-2008 Michigan:

In the late-1990s, if a convict was approved for release on parole, he or she would take a final walk down a long steel corridor, half looking over their shoulder with some hesitation about braving that next step toward freedom. More than likely the offender was ill-prepared to re-enter society and stood a good chance of again being incarcerated. The parole process reportedly has made great strides in rehabilitating parolees due to the onslaught of technological advances and community support offered both before and after release, a long jump from 2003 when prisons were rarely paroling prisoners and costing the taxpayers of Michigan $497 million a year to keep offenders incarcerated.

Due to escalating costs, budgetary restraints and a lagging economy, the state was forced to revamp the system. Today, the state Department of Corrections tries to use its dollars prudently by looking at innovative ways to parole prisoners; but to be released, prisoners must first be approved by the governing body that makes it all possible — the Parole Board.

Created by statute, the Michigan Parole Board is the sole authority over felons committed to the jurisdiction of the Michigan Department of Corrections. The board consists of 10 members divided into three-member panels. Those members are appointed by the director of the Department of Corrections.

Once a prisoner has served their minimum sentence, the Parole Board makes a decision on whether to interview the offender. The minimum sentence is set by a judge; the maximum sentence is set by state law via truth-in sentencing legislation. Effective in December of 1998, the statute requires offenders to serve the entire minimum sentence in prison prior to being considered for parole. These prisoners may also have their minimum sentence extended for "bad behavior" while in prison. Under this scenario, prisoners are not eligible for placement in a corrections center or release with electronic monitoring through a "tether."

The exceptions to this process are prisoners serving life sentences ("lifers"), who are interviewed by the Parole Board after they have served either 10 or 15 years (depending on the date of the offense). After that initial interview, the board is required to review each lifer case at five-year intervals. Prisoners serving for first-degree murder offenses may be released from prison only if they receive a pardon or a commutation from the governor. In a commutation, the life sentence is reduced to the number of years already served by the offender and parole is granted. State law allows any prisoner serving any length of time to apply for a commutation and requires a public hearing before the Parole Board can recommend executive clemency in all cases, including pardons. Under a pardon, the prisoner's sentence is effectively voided and the prisoner freed. The parole board has the discretionary authority to parole other lifers once they have served 10 or 15 years (depending on the date of the offense) and the sentencing judge doesn't object.

Each parole case is assigned to a Parole Board panel, which makes a decision on whether to grant parole by a majority vote, except in lifer cases. These cases must be decided by a majority vote of the entire Parole Board.

The Parole Board's No. 1 priority is public safety. While the process and Parole Board have undergone dramatic changes in recent years, the mechanics of the parole process have remained constant.

The factors considered by the board in making parole decisions include: current offense, prior criminal record, institutional behavior and programming, the offender's parole guidelines score, information obtained from the prisoner interview, and information from victims and other relevant sources.

According to Russ Marlan, public information officer for the Department of Corrections, the state paroles about 12,000 offenders every year and is considered to have a low approval rate for paroling prisoners compared to other states.

"Across the board, the board paroles about half of the people that come before them," he said. "That's a low approval rate in terms of national statistics."

According to state statistics, drug offenders have a high parole approval rate. On average, 80 percent are paroled primarily because of the nature of the crime and because they don't tend to be dangerous.

"It's only a matter of controlling their drug abuse," Marlan said.

Violent offenders are paroled around 35 percent of the time, according to Marlan.

The average parole term for offenders is between one-and-a-half and two years.

Once paroled, conditions are tacked on and tailored to the parolee. Conditions vary but may state that they are prohibited from leaving the state, or mandated to continue receiving mental health treatment, or may be prohibited from driving a car. Marlan said depending on the offense and offender's history, they may have a curfew imposed or be required to take a Breathalyzer test at home, unannounced.

There may also be financial conditions attached to parole, such as for a person convicted of robbery. These offenders may be required to pay a determined amount of restitution or pay a fee to the Crime Victim Fund in Michigan. The condition agreement is lengthy and variable and must be signed by the felon prior to release.

Conversely, if a parolee exceeds expectations once he or she is back in society, it's possible for them to be discharged from parole early.

"If a parolee is doing well and has paid their fees and restitution, as well as secured a job, a parole officer may recommend they are released early, but that doesn't happen that often," Marlan said.

There are two parole offices working in Oakland County; one in Waterford, and one in Pontiac. Currently, there are 13 parole agents working in the Pontiac office who are charged with supervising 816 parolees, or 62.8 offenders per agent. In the Waterford parole office, there are currently 11 parole agents who are responsible for 624 cases, or 56.7 offenders per agent.

Marlan, who was a former field agent in Wayne County for six years, said the county provided an office dedicated to the parole and supervision of sex offenders, but in the context of things, he said few of those offenders are paroled.

"We have a large uptake number of sex offenders," Marlan said. "Sex offenders are paroled only 10 percent of the time. They are currently the biggest population of offenders that are going to prison. Most of the sex offenders we have aren't necessarily the result of 'stranger danger' cases, but abusers of people that they know. It's typically the grandfathers, babysitters, and boyfriends of the victims."

Russ Cilibraise, administrative assistant to the deputy director of field operations administration within the Department of Corrections, said parole agent caseloads vary. For example, those agents specialized in supervising sex offender cases are assigned a smaller caseload due to the sensitive monitoring of these offenders.

According to Marlan, parole officers assigned to supervise sex offenders must curtail their caseload because of all the extra duties that accompany that role.

"At times I had 100 people I was responsible for, other times I had 25; but when I was supervised only sex offenders, you were assigned only a very small number because we had to supervise them up close," he said. "For instance, we had to go to group meetings, talk to their counselors, and administer polygraph tests at times when they weren't seen. These offenders have a litany of tight restrictions, such as they can't be within 1,000 feet of a school, they can't date a woman with kids, and aren't allowed to have children's movies in their homes."

According to Marlan, each parole officer's caseload is dependent upon a point system. Field agents have other duties that include status reports, pre-parole investigations and reports for cited violations, and each task is assigned a point. An agents total score determines how the agents are assigned cases.

Parolee supervision is defined as monitoring an offender in the community. There are different levels of supervision depending on the Parole Board's recommendation. Maximum supervision is when a parolee is required to contact his or her parole officer a minimum of four times in person per month. However, if the parolee is employed, the protocol is changed to two in-person contacts per month and a call-in mandate on alternate times of two times per month.

"We give them incentives to gain employment," Cilibraise said. "When employed, those parolees are know to be less troublesome and more compliant."

Medium supervision is defined as two in-person contacts with an agent per month, but if a parolee is employed that's modified to one in-person contact per month. Similarly, minimum or limited supervision calls for one in-person contact per month.

Parole officers use a number of innovative tools to supervise parolees, and each mode is crime-specific. For more intensive supervision, an offender may be ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device. Electronic monitoring allows for close supervision of a parolee while in the community. Schedules are set for offenders who are allowed to work, attend school, counseling and other appointments required by a court. Restricted areas can be established in cases where victims are involved. Progress and compliance with conditions of release are continually evaluated and reported to the court.

When recommended by the parole board, there are two electronic monitoring devices integrated into the parolee's plan for release. Both essentially operate the same way. A bracelet is adjoined to the offender's ankle. A counterpart unit clips onto the offender's belt. One tool is a global positioning system (GPS) electronic monitoring device, or active tether. The offender's movements are tracked via satellites and reported at regular intervals. In the event of a violation, the offender's movement is reported in as close to real time as possible. Exclusion or "hot" zones including a victim's home, work, school or church, are programmed into a map with a predetermined radius. If the offender enters one of these "hot" zones, the victim and GPS monitoring staff are notified via a paging system that allows the victim to enact a safety plan.

Appropriate candidates for GPS monitoring include offenders charged with domestic violence, criminal sexual conduct, stalking, or any crime with a victim.

Another form of electronic monitoring is the passive tracking tether. This unit allows for "exclusion" and "inclusion" zones to be established, but has delayed reporting. The defendant's activity is stored in the charging stand to be downloaded the following day. This option works to ensure offenders are where they are supposed to be — school, work or home after curfew. This option is utilized in cases where no victim is involved but a restriction of the offender's movements is desired.

Other forms of supervision include substance abuse tests, requiring a parolee to be tested two times per month if slated for medium or maximum supervision. Polygraph testing is another option, but is currently used solely for sex offender parolees. It's a limited program and only offered at certain locations in the state. Oakland County doesn't currently offer it; but according to Marlan, the county is looking to expand the program for the sex offender population.

Parolees must meet certain conditions to maintain their parole status. Conditions include restrictions on movements and require the parolee to have contact with a parole agent regularly, seek and maintain employment, attend treatment as needed, as well as prohibiting criminal behavior.

The Department of Corrections has a parole violation assessment process in effect that takes into account the parolee's offense and current performance record, the number of parole violations, whether the offender is currently employed, and a host of other variables. If the violation is considered low-level, the parole officer handles it. A moderate violation is reviewed by a supervisor; and a serious violation is delegated to a manager.

"Once we learn of an infraction, we respond immediately," Cilibraise said. "If the parolee does not report, for example, the field agent will attempt contact, and if the offender can not be located, the agent may request a warrant, but it depends on several variables. Now, if the GPS is cut off, we would investigate immediately and may get the warrant within that day but it could take up to a day or two."

The gamble is that while the parole officer is lining up the warrant, the offender could be on the loose committing another crime. Cilibraise said there is no fail-safe way to supervise offenders continuously without some risk.

"Realistically, no method is fool-proof, but recidivism rates have gone down and there is more technology to help in the process," he said.

According to Merry Morash, professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University, the parole system is historically a legitimate and necessary means for released prisoners to readjust to society while at the same time being monitored.

"It's a period of time where the parolee isn't constantly supervised," he said. "We can place some controls over them, but ultimately it's his chance to readjust to society. The only way to completely monitor them is to keep them in prison. Parole continues to be a very important part of our justice system."

Parole violations could draw ramifications including counseling, treatment, increased parole supervision, community service, program placement, or return to prison. Many infractions are not motivated by criminal behavior, but errors due to not reporting on time or missing a treatment session.

The goal of the parole system is to assist the offender in his trek to become a law-abiding and productive member of the community. The parole agent relies on community partners in this effort, including family, employers, treatment providers, faith-based mentors and counselors.

Marlan said the Department of Corrections now has more resources for parolees that it didn't have access to before.

"We see what indicators push people and what their individual circumstances are," he said. "Since the best source of information for the parole officer is the parolee's family, we develop a relationship with those families. We try to get a feel for what's going on in their house and whether it's conducive to discharge them once they've served their term."

But it's not only what happens after they're released into society that impacts the parolee.

"We do more to prepare felons for release now," Marlan said. "We employ institutional agents to work with them prior to release and they make a plan for a parolee. They address concerns such as employment, substance abuse and mental health programs, and family unification. We also make sure they've connected with their field agent during that process. Once the parolee reenters society, the community coordinator takes up the parolee's cross and works with various agencies to ensure some success. These efforts are done under the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Program."

In 2005, the state introduced that program and has in the last year realized a 26 percent reduction in the recidivism rate among prisoners who have participated. Over 10,000 people have been paroled through the program, which accounts for about 500 fewer returns to incarceration. According to Marlan, this in and of itself, is a success story.

"That's 500 fewer crimes or 500 fewer victims in the community," he said. "The program is saving money and more importantly, it's making our neighborhoods safe. It's a state-funded program that we've sunk over $30 million into, but through it we've seen a 26 percent decrease in recidivism and it's the best chance for success."

The cost savings is significant. It costs approximately $3,000 a year to monitor parolees in the community, while it costs around $30,000 to house a convict in prison.

According to Morash, the financial burden has led to a national prison crisis. She cites truth in sentencing legislation, as well as the closing of mental health hospitals as causes of the sharp rise of prison populations.

"The U.S. has the highest number of people in prison, but not the highest crime rate." she said. "It has increased the harshness of punishment. The states have increased sentence length and used the prisons by establishing mandatory minimum sentencing through the legal process. Our country is in a national crisis. We can't afford to keep the numbers in prison because it takes away from other worthwhile budgetary line items such as education and mental health budgets. It's important to note that 30 to 40 years ago, they started closing mental hospitals to treat them in the community but treatment plans were never developed. So, the jails and prisons became the dumping grounds because of the inadequacies of the mental health system."

Morash said the key is devising a plan for rehabilitation that includes resources working together both before release and after.

"Nationally, the emphasis has been to make parole effective in the re-entry phase by a graduated system of a pre-release plan," Morash said. "In doing so it will unburden and protect the public by rehabilitation. Eventually these prisoners are going to get out and a re-entry plan is critical. We need a network of services and a well-functioning parole office. We are always concerned with public safety, but national research show that when people come out of prison, they are often in need of numerous services and if they don't receive them, they are at risk of breaking the law. We need to do anything to increase support whether it be mental health services, substance abuse or access to housing. These services will help them curtail the tendency to revert back to criminal behavior and thus back to prison."

"We're setting up a structure for success," Marlan said. "We are continuing to bring in community volunteers who offer up their time for mentoring and that, coupled with our parole system, is encouraging."

"A parole officer is part social worker/part police officer," he said. It can be a difficult and sometimes dangerous job, but to this day I still get calls from ex-prisoners who thank me. There's a satisfaction in knowing you've made a difference and it makes the job worthwhile."

Oakland County Chief Circuit Court Judge Wendy Potts declined to comment on the current state of the parole system. ..News Source.. by Leslie Shepard-Owsley