"How parole boards keep prisoners behind in the dark and behind bars" is an important investigative piece on parole board processes throughout the United States, featuring the case of a Michigan lifer. CAPPS's director of research and policy, Barbara Levine, is quoted. Washington Post: How parole boards keep prisoners in the dark and behind bars [...]
On June 10, the Detroit News published an editorial about CAPPS report, "10,000 Michigan prisoners: Strategies to reach the goal" Nonprofit's reform recommendations complement Snyder initiative and would cut inmate population by 25 percent, saving $250 million The Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending is releasing a comprehensive report today with the ambitious but [...]
New York Times | 1.5 Million Missing Black Men APRIL 20, 2015 By JUSTIN WOLFERS, DAVID LEONHARDT and KEVIN QUEALY For every 100 black women not in jail, there are only 83 black men. The remaining men – 1.5 million of them – are, in a sense, missing. In New York, almost 120,000 black men between the ages of 25 [...]
What Caused the Crime Decline? Brennan Center for Justice | Dr. Oliver Roeder, Lauren-Brooke Eisen, and Julia Bowling Executive Summary For the past 40 years, the United States has been engaged in a vast, costly social experiment. It has incarcerated a higher percentage of its people, and for a longer period, than any other democracy. In [...]
Black Lives Matter: Eliminating Racial Inequity in the Criminal Justice System by The Sentencing Project “Black lives matter” has become a rallying cry in light of evidence that the criminal justice system is failing to uphold this basic truth. Official data, although woefully inadequate, show that over half of those killed by police in recent [...]
Off the Charts Blog | The Rise in State Prison Populations Posted by Michael Mitchell December 3, 2014 at 10:01 am Most states’ prison populations are at historic highs after decades of extraordinary growth. This growth has been costly, limiting economic opportunity for communities with especially high incarceration rates and taking critical resources from other important [...]
Anne Yantus, University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law | 2014 Abstract The governor and several legislators have requested review of Michigan’s sentencing practices with an eye toward sentence reform. Michigan leads the country in the average length of prison stay, and by internal comparisons the average minimum sentence has nearly doubled in the last decade. [...]
As number of elderly prisoners grows, prison system creaks under burden of rising health care costs January 6, 2015 5:00AM ET | Al Jazeera by Steve Friess @stevefriess George Hall, 79, sits in his room on Monday, Dec. 1, 2014, at the Lakeland Men's Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan. Tim Galloway for Al Jazeera America COLDWATER, Mich. — [...]
CAPPS/Mackinac Center OP ED: Michigan's parole policies waste money, need reform Barbara Levine and Michael LaFaive 5:18 p.m. EST December 13, 2014, Detroit Free Press (Photo: 2009 photo by ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press) Michigan spends nearly 20% of its general-fund dollars locking people up. A portion of that money could be better spent elsewhere, such as on [...]
Associated Press, November 30, 2014 Download>> Savings eyed in criminal justice featured in Associated Press "Michigan lawmakers are considering changes in the state’s criminal justice system, including a fairer path to parole for prisoners and a data-driven effort to rewrite sentencing guidelines for certain crimes. The case is being made by a western Michigan Republican, [...]