Community-based sanctions
Facts | Alternatives to incarceration | Sentencing An overview of the types and effectiveness of alternatives to incarceration. Read>> Community based sanctions
Michigan’s sentencing and parole system
This is a must-read overview of the Michigan system, including sentencing guidelines and parole practices. Read this first to better understand the issues. Read>> Michigan's sentencing and parole system
Glossary of corrections terms
This document provides descriptions of the most frequently-used terms and concepts related to corrections. Read>> Glossary of corrections terms
Michigan prison system: Basic facts
This document provides an overview of Michigan’s prison system, including data about: population growth, the number of prisoners in 2012, incarceration rate, corrections spending, prisoner demographics and parole rates. In 30 years, Michigan’s prison population grew at 29 times the rate of its total population. Read>> 2013 Basic facts about Michigan's prison system
What are parole guidelines and how do they work?
The Michigan Department of Correction developed parole guidelines in 1984 to “reduce the potential for disparity in parole decisions and to explicitly define the bases upon which rational and equitable parole release decisions should be made,” according to an MDOC report. That is, they were initially conceived to make decisions more objective and consistent, not [...]
The Michigan parole process
CAPPS has long recommended a series of reforms to the parole process that would enhance the objectivity, fairness and transparency of parole decision-making. These include restoring the prisoner's right to appeal parole denials, just as prosecutors can appeal parole grants. The availability of judicial review is critical to enforcing statutory parole guidelines and any statutory [...]
Parole board and commutation process
By the State Bar of Michigan, Prisons and Corrections Section, January 8, 2011 The Prisons and Corrections Section supports legislative or other action to require that any substantive communications to or from the Board regarding parole or commutation be timely provided to the prisoner or his or her representative with a reasonable opportunity to respond. Where [...]
The Michigan parole process for lifers
More than 5,000 prisoners, 11 percent of the population, are serving either parolable or non-parolable life. This aging population is generally very low risk and is becoming increasingly expensive to care for as health problems increase. Although they became eligible for release after serving 10 years, hundreds of lifers who were caught by changed parole [...]
Strategies for safely reducing the prisoner population
This 2011 presentation by Barbara Levine is as relevant today as it was in 2011: Barbara Levine, Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending Presentation to: Finding the Path to a $1.5 Billion Corrections Budget A Symposium for Policymakers and Stakeholders, March 17, 2011 When the prison population has been reduced by 7,500 and the [...]
Parole and probation conditions as a barrier to reentry
Sex offenders | August 2011 A PowerPoint presentation by Miriam Aukerman, West Michigan Regional Staff Attorney, ACLU, prepared for the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. Read>> Parole and probation conditions as barriers