Convicts leaving incarceration often have a difficult time re-entering the working world because, according to one survey, 65 percent of employers would never consider hiring someone with a felony record. And there are other barriers to employment. For instance, John SCHWARTZ of Trinity Health-Michigan told the story of one hospital employee who was arrested for a drunk driving [...]
Business leaders from around the state seeking to hire those being released from prison or jail praised the Vocational Village program in Ionia in a House committee this week and asked for more changes in the state's criminal justice policies to remove barriers to hiring former prisoners. The House Law and Justice Committee has been [...]
Click here to read the original article: detroitnews.com | Download a PDF here: Smarter-parole-for-a-safer-Michigan By Rep. Dave Pagel Detroit News, Aug. 11, 2016 Rep. Dave Pagel, R-Oronoko Township, serves the 78th District in the Michigan House of Representatives. Over the last year, bipartisan efforts to reform Michigan’s corrections system have intensified. Reducing Michigan’s corrections spending is critically [...]
Barbara Levine, CAPPS associate director for research and policy, explained the criminal justice reform bills in this 12-minute WKAR interview. While the medical parole and judicial veto bills have since passed the full House (see post), the interview provides a detailed explanation of the bills and their impact. Very much worth listening to and passing on! WKAR [...]
America's Real Criminal Element: Lead by Kevin Drum In February of 2013, Kevin Drum an article for Mother Jones about what might be causing the downward trend in violent crime that had been occurring nationally in the '90s and early 2000's. While some people argued that the prison system, or the number of young men in [...]
Here's some additional information: Answers to Tough Questions about House Bill 4138: The “Presumptive Parole” Bill 1. Will HB 4138 change the basic parole process in Michigan? Not at all. Parole guidelines that have been in effect since 1992 assess the risk of a prisoner reoffending. The statute has always said that prisoners being considered [...]
The media is pushing back on the disinformation campaign about evidenced based parole reform. Examples: Brian Dickerson's column in the Detroit Free Press: Why fear-mongers are losing the prison reform fight For the last decade or so, smart people in both major parties have been looking for ways to reduce the $2-billion bite the Michigan [...]
WKAR Off the Record discusses presumptive parole with Barbara Levine Off the Record | October 16, 2015 Barbara Levine wants to change the state prison system. Bill Ballenger, Zoe Clark and Kathy Gray join senior capitol correspondent Tim Skubick. Watch>> Off the Record
Editorial: Presumptive Parole is safe for Michigan Enquirer editorial board 7:25 p.m. EDT October 15, 2015:It’s infuriating when politicians, bereft of facts, resort to fear-mongering to get their way in public policy debates. When it’s the state’s top law enforcement official, it’s disgraceful. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s intransigence on so-called “tough on crime” policies is [...]
Click to read online at MLIVE.com: William G. Milliken: Time to reverse Michigan's failed, costly imprisonment policies Read online Analysis of HB 4138 Failed policies of the past have kept people in prison long beyond the time they were safe to release, former Gov. William G. Milliken says. William G. Milliken was governor of Michigan [...]