Out of State, Out of Mind

Published July 02, 2009 @ 08:31AM PT

Thousands of people convicted of a crime in California or Alaska could soon be headed to Michigan to serve their time.

Michigan has succeeded in shrinking its prison population in the last year through a novel idea that shouldn't be so groundbreaking - releasing prisoners who are ready for release. But rather than building on this positive move, Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants the state to profit on the overcrowding of other states without progressive parole practices.

California is facing a crippling budget crisis and federal judges have ordered the state to address overcrowding immediately. But shipping prisoners out of sight isn't the way to fix the problem. Housing prisoners two thousand miles from their families and communities is a recipe for disaster. Many of our prisons already isolate convicts and destroy their chances at successful reentry by skimping on job training and limiting contact with support systems on the outside. This plan takes that isolation to a new level.

Ron Dzwonskowski says it well in the Detroit Free Press:

It is well established that the inmates who have the best chance of success after release are those who stay in contact with a support system of friends and family members on the outside who are truly concerned for their welfare. This gives inmates hope, improves conduct in prison and makes inmates less susceptible to undesirable influences on the inside. How many California or Alaska families are going to travel to Michigan for visitors’ weekends?

Of course, shipping inmates out of state is nothing new - even for California. The state already has 7,500 prisoners housed in private facilities in Arizona, Tennessee, Mississippi and Oklahoma. This would be the first time the Governator has shipped prisoners to another state's public prisons, however.

The savings sound big – California spends $45,000 per year per inmate, while Michigan spends $32,500 per prisoner. For every 1,000 prisoners California sends to Michigan, it stands to save $12 million a year. But California could also save that same $12 million by taking a page from Michigan’s playbook (and complying with a court order) and releasing prisoners who are eligible for parole. If the state chose to release elderly prisoners, the savings would be even greater because elderly prisoners cost more to house.

Criminal justice reform is moving forward in this country, and Michigan’s shrinking prison population is a prime example. But we need to be vigilant that we don’t compromise this progress with policies that simply fill prison beds from other sources. Once prisons are built and courtrooms get used to send people to those prisons, the momentum is hard to stop. Michigan is closer than most states to taking a big step and closing prisons. California and Alaska should reconsider their own policies before they simply fill empty beds in Michigan and keep the addiction to incarceration rolling.

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Comments (7)

With this perverse profit incentive, Murphy's law will ensure that the country's prison population will rise to fill available capacity. I applaud what Michigan has done to reduce the prison population, but would like to see them do something else with their surplus capacity.

Maybe we should take a page from the military base closing book. What else can old prisons be used for?

Posted by Ted Nunn on 07/02/2009 @ 09:17AM PT
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How about converting them to Learning/Rehabilitation centers Scrap the shipping out of state other than for short term education benifits to the inmate.

Posted by Thomas Kinney on 07/02/2009 @ 11:52AM PT
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One has to understand the goals, "profit" is their goal, not social solutions.

It is not profitable for those inclined to be LEO's, prison guards, officers of the court or anyone else in the punishment process to actually produce solutions, the disease cured.

Punishing the symptoms of the problem is always more profitable than "curing" it. They have established a "service" dynamic, treating the symptoms.

Consider the individual convicted of a crime, isolated and then returned. With the record in the current economy there would be mimimal employment in legal businesses, so they would have an inclination to take advantage of riskier opportunities. They would have an attitude of WGF and SH and the punishment cycle continues.....

Posted by jowey styxx on 07/02/2009 @ 04:18PM PT
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What we're seeing in Michigan reveals a tragic truth: When there is some success in reducing the prison population, the empty cells become a magnate for warehousing prisoners from other locations. Whether the cells be private or public, the short-term economic incentive to keep them filled can overwhelm more important concerns.

Posted by william newmiller on 07/03/2009 @ 08:11AM PT
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We now must wonder if this is the agenda of states like Michigan. The revolving door of more and more incarcerations continue without an end in sight. Michigan has reduced its inmate population just to open the cells to out-of-state inmates. Rehabilitation and reform are not priorities. Many families and their loved ones will be torn apart from one another. It is always about the money for the profitable prison corporations; the exchange of human beings for profit. This is slavery. It's also very, very exhausting to everyone involved in humane justice reform. It is obviously sinister on a national level.

Posted by Marcia McGuire on 07/04/2009 @ 06:16PM PT
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I am reminded of the old adage "follow the money" and I would surely love to follow the money here. The judicial/prison system, State or Federal is under the control of our elected representatives. I wonder how many degrees of separation there are between cause and effect, between the politicians and the profit. Could there be a correlation between profit and the failure to pass reform legislation?

Posted by Thomas Kinney on 07/04/2009 @ 07:04PM PT
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Thomas. Absolutely.

Posted by Marcia McGuire on 07/05/2009 @ 08:12AM PT
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Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.