John Oliver on mass incarceration in the United States
Click here to watch. John Oliver discusses America's broken prison system in a hilarious and heartbreaking video. Watch for poignant interaction with Sesame Street characters.
Lansing State Journal Greater Lansing Outlook section asks leaders: Can Michigan unlock a door to criminal justice reforms?
June 27, 2014 | Lansing State Journal Note: CAPPS op ed, below Because "Michigan’s criminal justice system continues to strain the state’s budget and its spending on corrections is higher than many other states," The June 27, 2014 Greater Lansing Outlook section of the Lansing State Journal looked at "research into sentencing guidelines and other practices [...]
Part 2 of 2: Bridge Magazine: Michigan gets serious about high cost of prisons
First two of four Bridge Magazine articles on Michigan's corrections spendingBy Ted Roelofs | Bridge Magazine | bridgemi.com | April 15, 2014 Conservatives seek to lead on prison reform At first blush, the Midland-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, might seem an unlikely cheerleader for prison reform. Michael LaFaive, a fiscal analyst for the [...]
Report: Life goes on: The historic rise in life sentences in American
A new report by The Sentencing Project documents the rise of life sentences in the U.S. While serious crime rates in the U.S. have been declining for the last 20 years, the number of prisoners serving life sentences has more than quadrupled since 1984. The Sentencing Project's new report found that over 159,000 people were [...]
CAPPS reads: Race to Incarcerate: A graphic retelling
Reposted from The Sentencing Project: First published in 1999, Marc Mauer’s Race to Incarcerate, a seminal work which explains the exponential growth of the U.S. prison system, has just been published as Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling. Mauer collaborated with graphic artist Sabrina Jones to adapt and update the original text to produce a vivid and [...]
Grand Rapids Business Journal: Longer sentences fuel big budget for Michigan prisons
The Grand Rapids Business Journal recently addressed the high cost of Michigan's corrections policies. The Journal interviewed Daniel Heyns, head of the Michigan Department of Corrections, who had important things to say about the high cost of Michigan's punitive sentencing policies. Unfortunately, Heyns got it wrong about the role current parole policies play in driving up Michigan's corrections [...]
ACLU’s overview of state legislative efforts to reduce prison populations
On April 29, 2013, Vanita Gupta, deputy legal director of the ACLU's Center for Justice, circulated this overview of legislative initiatives and news from across the U.S.: Highlights from the national campaign to end over-incarceration State Legislative Highlights: A number of states have either passed laws or are advancing bills that could reduce state correctional populations. Below are [...]
Correcting the record on probationers and parolees: Free Press series misleading, harmful to sound policy
The recent Free Press series (9/30-10/2/2012) and its sensational headlines suggest that large numbers of released prisoners are roaming the streets assaulting and murdering citizens at will. Although this image is simply untrue, the MDOC has already slowed the grant of paroles and is returning more technical parole violators to prison. The series began with [...]
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