Granholm: right decision, wrong reasons

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is pushing to release roughly 7,000 inmates from Michigan's prison system to relive Michigan's debt and general lack-of-money with her recently announced good-time proposal. The proposal would shorten an inmate's incarceration period for each misconduct-free month the prisoner has. And for a state that has been continuously hit with bad economic policies, this move makes a lot of sense. Michigan has the highest prisoner population in the Great Lakes region and has roughly $2 billion budgeted for corrections alone during the fiscal year of 2010. In fact, Michigan pays out more money for incarceration than it does for its own public universities.

So, in the grand scheme of things, releasing non-violent prisoners, such as drug dealers and tax-evaders, can be relatively harmless. There has been a strong push in Lansing to reverse the 1998 truth in sentencing laws, which require all offenders to serve minimum sentences for their crimes. On their face, the truth-in-sentencing laws sound like a good idea, but ultimately they cost the taxpayer more by increasing the prisoner population, increasing the need for more prisons and increasing the need for more corrections officers.

But Granholm has also been releasing convicted murderers back into the general population. She has given 38 clemency since her term began. This is bad. It shows a lax enforcement for the most grievous of crimes and there's no guarantee that granting the prisoners a newly-found sense of freedom will prevent them from committing another violent crime. Certainly Granholm took the latter into account, freeing only the infirm and elderly, but doing that subverts the purpose of the former.

Former Michigan Gov. William Milliken learned this lesson the hard way after granting clemency to former convicted murders, two of which left the system only to commit both multiple murders. It's a tricky issue, especially when the state could potentially save $130 million in a $2 billion budget, but violent offenders must serve their term.

If Granholm wants to make changes and save Michigan taxpayer money, she will continue to shut down some of Michigan's correctional facilities and begin privatizing others. The privatization of prisons could potentially save millions of dollars, and by forcing the state facilities to compete with funds, it could increase the efficiency of currently unionized prisons. In 2003, New Mexico spent roughly $9,000 less per prisoner than unionized states. According to a study by the Mackinaw Center for Public Policy, using this model could save taxpayers roughly $400 million. If Michigan wasn't one of the most unionized states in the country, there could be fiscal change for the better. But then again, Michigan is used to being a prisoner to bad policies.