Fall 2012  |  CAPPS Consensus newsletter

The latest CAPPS Consensus newsletter includes revealing information about Michigan sentencing practices over the last four decades, beginning on Page 6 of an article on the Pew Center on the States report that reveals Michigan’s extraordinarily long – and extraordinarily expensive – average prison length of stay:

“The Pew report confirms the findings of earlier Michigan-specific research . . . While these researchers attributed much of Michigan’s increased length of stay to harsher parole policies, increased sentence lengths also made a substantial contribution to the trend.

The MDOC’s annual statistical report contains a table that shows, by offense, the minimum sentences imposed for people committed to prison that year. CAPPS reviewed the reports for 40 years– from 1970-2009. The trends for several of the most common assaultive offenses — second-degree murder, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and armed robbery — are particularly revealing.”

Read>> CAPPS Consensus Fall 2012