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: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

MI: How to close a prison and still not save money.

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

SPECIAL REPORT: Why Michigan prison costs keep growing By The Center for Michigan - April 14, 2010 By Melissa Preddy As Michigan lawmakers negotiate next year's corrections department budget, analysts are perplexed by a persistent conundrum: The state's spending on prisons isn't shrinking, despite recent years' steep cuts in staff and in the inmate population. The contradiction raises questions about competing corrections budget plans. The governor is calling for a return to "good-time" sentence-reduction plans which would close facilities and release thousands more prisoners. A Senate bill aims to maintain facilities but control costs on items like prison industries, food service and inmate transportation. But does either plan really address rising payroll costs, which currently consume nearly 75 percent of the Michigan Department of Corrections budget? The disconnect frustrates policy analysts and other experts who see controlling corrections spending ? the second largest item in the state budget, after community health ? as a key to solving the Michigan's enormous financial deficit...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on April 27, 2010 (boomark / email).