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Michigan editorial follows the money to assail prison priorities

By Douglas A. Berman

With lean economic times, I expect we may start to see a number of editorials similar to this new commentary from a local Michigan paper.  Here are extended excerpts from an effective editorial:Michigan no longer can afford its hard-as-nails approach to crime and punishment.  About 20 cents of every dollar in the state's $9.8 billion General Fund budget is spent on the Department of Corrections. That $2 billion a year may rise to $2.6 billion a year by 2012, the Citizens Research Council of Michigan said last month ? unless our state corrects its irrational attitudes about corrections. Nearly every branch of state government has faced deep budget cuts during Michigan's prolonged economic depression. Our lawmakers, after a year of bloody budget battles, even enacted tax increases last year to help pay for state services...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 12, 2008 (boomark / email).