Jake Neher, Michigan Radio, November 20, 2014

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“Michigan spends about $2 billion every year on prisons. The legislation seeks to reduce the length of some prison stays and provide more supervision for people after they are released from prison.

The most widely supported proposal would create a commission to oversee sentencing guidelines and discuss other corrections policies.

‘It creates a forum for exploring all this. And it’s something Michigan badly needs,’ said Barbara Levine with the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending.

‘Every additional month that somebody spends in prison multiplied by thousands of prisoners is millions of dollars. So the question becomes whether there’s a way to reduce that length of stay safely.'”