MI- Hysteria over parolees threatens rehab efforts

8-6-2009 Michigan:

Recidivism and crime rates have fallen in the last two years, as parole rates have gone up. You wouldn't know it, though, by listening to Warren Mayor James Fouts, or Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, or many other politicians and pundits across the state who suggest that hordes of newly released felons are putting us all at risk. Fearmongering and hysteria threaten to take Michigan back to the failed lock-'em-up-'till-they-drop prison policies of the last three decades.

The latest battleground is Warren, where Fouts has accused the state of turning his city into a dumping ground for sex offenders and drug addicts. He wants the Self-Help Addiction Rehabilitation (SHAR) center on Chicago Road to move, charging that he was not properly notified that the residential treatment center would take ex-prisoners after opening in June. Not so, say SHAR administrators, who showed me a July 1 letter, signed by Fouts, welcoming SHAR to Warren.

In any case, this beef has generated more heat than light. "Warren is not a penal colony," proclaimed a sign across from SHAR on Saturday. When I spoke to protesters, they objected to prisoners getting "early releases" and feared Michigan would become a dumping ground for California convicts.

In truth, the state has granted no early releases. All released prisoners, including those at SHAR, have served at least a minimum sentence. As for California, even if Michigan takes some of its inmates, it would send them back before they're paroled.
Michigan has increased parole rates, including those for sex offenders, who make up 20% of Michigan's 47,500 prisoners. But state prisons still hold more than 11,000 inmates who have served their sentences and are eligible for parole. It's worth noting, too, that most sex offenders are not pedophiles. A 17-year-old boy convicted of having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend, for example, would be classified as a sex offender and placed on the state's sex offender registry.

Fouts objects to SHAR's location across from a private volleyball club. But where should SHAR go? So far, the Warren center has two dozen clients, mostly parolees who come from the Macomb area. About half are sex offenders. No one wants them around, and state law restricts them from living within 1,000 feet of a school, park, day care center or playground. So urban settings are largely off-limits. Ann Arbor, for example, has 134 parks.

In Miami, local laws have virtually forced sex offenders to live under a bridge linking Miami to Miami Beach -- and now they're getting booted out of there. Such restrictions force parolees into homelessness and make it nearly impossible for police to track them.

The risks are far smaller at SHAR, where parole officers and police will have on-site offices. Most offenders wear electronic tethers and get treated for addictions and other problems. SHAR has had no problems with residents, said chief executive officer Dwight Vaughter. Nor has the Detroit-based nonprofit had any serious breaches in working with corrections clients for more than 20 years.

Warren isn't the only spot hyperventilating. Prosecutor Cooper is suing the state for a list of felons scheduled for release. Television crews have camped outside hotels in Grand Rapids where some sex offenders stay. Some YMCAs are expelling registered sex offenders. This isn't public safety; it's a 21st Century witch hunt.

Nearly all prisoners will get out after serving their sentences. The state can either release them into supervised treatment, or cast them aside like lepers and push them into more crime.

Fear and hysteria will drag Michigan down. Spending $2 billion a year on prisons -- more than the state spends on higher education -- has failed to make Michigan citizens any safer than states with far fewer prisons.

Lowering the state's bloated prison population by 3,500 this year is the only bold step Gov. Jennifer Granholm has taken, but so far her critics have dominated the debate. It's time Granholm grabbed the mike and told the people not to believe the hype. ..Source.. by JEFF GERRITT