Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Criminal Law

: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

MI: State should expand Parole Board to cut prison stays and costs

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

State should expand Parole Board to cut prison stays and costs February 4, 2009 Michigan's $2-billion-a-year prison system holds thousands of inmates who have served their minimum sentence and are eligible for release. Not all of them merit paroles, of course, but many do, costing taxpayers millions of dollars that could be better spent on higher education and other state services. To give these cases a thorough and timely review, Gov. Jennifer Granholm ought to expand the 10-member Parole Board. Longer prison stays, dictated by past Parole Board practices, are largely responsible for Michigan spending hundreds of millions of dollars more on prisons than surrounding states -- states with crime rates no higher than Michigan's. At least 12,000 inmates who are eligible for parole remain in Michigan's 41 prisons, even though parole rates have increased over the last year...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on February 05, 2009 (boomark / email).