MI- Are savings from freeing felons worth risk to safety?

5-24-2009 Michigan:

Some fear more crime; state assures safety

A nearly 30-year-old Michigan prison policy -- roughly characterized as: "When in doubt, lock 'em up" -- is ending.

In the midst of -- and partly in response to -- the economic crisis, many of the state's expensive prison cells are being emptied.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced in February plans to downsize the state's prison population, by about 3,000 by Oct. 1, effectively ending an era in which policymakers built more prisons, enacted tougher sentences and hired parole board members conditioned to "just say no."

The questions are: Who are the people the state has decided don't belong in prison? Can we be comfortable with them on our streets and in our neighborhoods?

The Free Press attempted to answer the first question by looking at 318 parolees released in December under similar criteria to those being released this year. Most have committed violent acts in the past -- murder, armed robbery, rape and assault, among others. But relatively few -- 29 of the 318 as of late last week -- had gone off the tracks again. None had committed a new, violent crime in the latest months of parole.

The answer to the second question depends on whom you ask. Granholm and top corrections officials insist downsizing can be done safely if enough care is taken to manage parolees before and after their release.

Skeptics, led by the state's elected county prosecutors, doubt it will happen.

"There will be more crime," says Saginaw County Prosecutor Mike Thomas.

Free Press analysis shows risk

Ex-convicts aren't choirboys. By definition, each of the hundreds of Michigan prisoners slated for accelerated release this year under Gov. Jennifer Granholm's aggressive prison-downsizing plan is a criminal.

But neither are they psycho killers. And every one, barring death, will be back on the street.

To better understand who is being released, the Free Press analyzed the records of 318 prison inmates paroled in December after serving more than their judicially imposed minimum sentence. All were participants in the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative, the principal tool being using by the Department of Corrections to accelerate parole.

Now in its sixth year, MPRI aims to increase the success of parolees by improving their work and life skills before release and providing more intensive supervision afterward.

Corrections officials are adamant that MPRI reduces recidivism and, in time, will make Michigan safer.

Still, MDOC Director Patricia Caruso acknowledges: "Some people will fail. We can't eliminate risk; we can only manage it."

A closer look at December's 318 delayed-release MPRI parolees helps explain why:

• More than two-thirds (218) were convicted of at least one violent felony.

• Eighteen have served time for murder; another eight committed assaults so potentially deadly that they were convicted of attempted murder.

• One in four (74 parolees) have at least five felony convictions.

• Nearly half (46%) have been paroled before and failed, 83 having committed what the department calls "technical violations," and 65 having committed new crimes.

Twenty-nine of the 318 December parolees had run afoul of the law again -- and were either back in custody or missing -- by late last week.

Prison officials said they aren't deceiving themselves about those returning to the streets.

"One hundred percent of the people we parole have a crime in their past," said Caruso, a former warden herself.

But, she adds, every one is going to be paroled eventually. The question is: when and under what conditions?

On the other hand, many Michigan prosecutors believe the department, in league with advocates for prison downsizing, have soft-pedaled the risk of returning so many of the felons to Michigan's neighborhoods.

The idea that state prisons are packed with mild-mannered, nonviolent offenders is just wrong, said Saginaw County Prosecutor Mike Thomas.

"The people who are in Michigan prisons are people we should be afraid of because they're dangerous," Thomas said.

"Judges try to keep people out of prison," said Oakland County's Prosecuting Attorney Jessica Cooper, herself a former trial and appeals court judge. "The people who get sent to prison are people who need to be sent, who need to be off the streets."

The argument that Michigan has too many people behind bars is complex, and at times contradictory.

Michigan, like almost all of the United States, has a relatively high rate of incarceration compared to other nations. But the state is in the middle of the pack nationally (505 Michigan inmates per 100,000 population vs. a national rate of 509 in 2008). And the state's prison population has fallen markedly -- from nearly 51,500 in 2006, to about 47,700 -- recently.

An exhaustive analysis by the Justice Center at the Council of State Governments, released earlier this year, found that, compared with other states, Michigan:

• Has more violent crime -- 562 crimes per 100,000 residents, highest in the Midwest and 10th highest in the country.

• Catches fewer violent criminals -- only 28% of violent crimes resulted in arrest in Michigan in 2007, compared with 44% nationally.

• Sends relatively fewer of those caught and convicted to prison -- 23% of convicted felons go to prison in Michigan vs. a national rate of 40%.

But for another complex set of reasons -- more high-security prisoners and higher labor costs to name two -- it also costs more to keep someone behind bars in Michigan (about $31,000 a year on average) than in most states. Ohio, for instance, pays about $24,000 a year per prisoner; in Texas, it's about $16,000.

One thing appears clear: Locking up criminals in Michigan increasingly costs more than state taxpayers can afford. Michigan's prison budget tops $2 billion a year and eats up more than 20% of the state's discretionary spending.

Granholm's downsizing is forecast to cut about $180 million from the prison budget in 2010. Some of the savings -- about $70 million -- is slated for so-called reinvestment, prisoner and parolee programs to increase oversight and improve the odds for parolee success.

Michigan's tether/GPS system, which allows the state to track the location of parolees from an office in Lansing, is the nation's largest, Caruso said, with about 3,700 parolees under electronic watch. The parole board itself has been expanded from 10 to 15 to handle more cases.

Many prosecutors and other skeptics argue that the department has moved ahead with accelerated parole without adequate preparation.

State Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, chairman of the committee that handles the budget for prisons, says that while some useful investment has been made in parole preparation and supervision, much more needs to be done to beef up local police protection and deal with probationers so their criminal activities don't escalate.

"There just aren't enough cops on the streets," Cropsey said. "Look at the City of Detroit. They're less well-equipped to deal with a 1,000 extra ex-cons than they were eight to 10 years ago. And that's what they're going to get."

Caroline, a 46-year-old single mother and crime victim in Detroit who asked that her real name not be published, shares Cropsey's apprehension. Five years ago, she and a male acquaintance were shot inside a Detroit nightclub by her ex-boyfriend. She testified against him and he was convicted and sentenced to 5 to 10 years. He was released on parole last month.

Caroline said she has been assured her attacker is closely monitored with GPS. She's unimpressed. At the time of the shooting, she says, she had a personal protection order, barring him from making contact with her. It was in her purse when she shot. She brought the blood-stained document to his trial to show the judge.

"What is a tether going to do that that piece of paper didn't?" she asked.

"I know they've got to save some money. But if they're going to parole 'em early and lay off police, what are we going to do? I say, 'Everybody get a gun.' "

Caruso believes that in the long run, communities -- and victims like Caroline -- will be safer because more parolees will be better prepared to succeed. She said the main goal of the accelerated parole program isn't about saving money.

"We were forced to do it because of the economic crisis, but that's not why we're doing it," she said. "We're doing it because it's the right thing to do." ..News Source.. by DAWSON BELL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER