The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board | July 14, 2015
An excerpt from Detroit Free Press editorial on the State of Michigan’s decision to end its contract with prison food vendor, Aramark Correctional Services, early:
“To truly reduce the cost of running our prison system, the state should change the way it sentences and paroles prisoners. Reforms proposed last year by former state Rep. Joe Haveman, a Republican, would have offered more prisoners (except the most serious offenders) opportunity for parole, stepped up post-incarceration supervision, and created alternate penalties for non-criminal probation and parole violations. The bills didn’t make it through the Legislature’s lame-duck session. The state should also invest in drug courts, which offer treatment and supervision to offenders whose crimes are related to addiction.
Reducing the number of Michiganders in prison is the best way to cut the corrections budget, while maintaining the state’s side of the social contract: To provide humane incarceration, a chance to pay one’s debt to society, and move on.”