Objective parole is one step away from becoming law in Michigan after it sailed through the Senate committee hearing and a full vote of the Senate in single day on Sept. 5, 2018. Objective parole requires the parole board to adhere to set standards when determining whether an incarcerated person who scores as a low-risk [...]
Michigan has a longer length of stay for people in prison than any other state. The Pew Center on the States study found that in 2009, Michigan prisoners served nearly 17 months more than average. According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, in 2016 the average minimum sentence was 9.9 years (a figure which does [...]
Only Michigan and four other states treat 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. Currently, a 17-year-old, who is legally too young to vote, marry, or join the military, can be convicted in adult court. There is little disagreement among stakeholders that raise the age is good for Michigan. However, uncertainty about the potential [...]
Michigan has a longstanding backlog of cases at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry, a state-operated facility that provides diagnostic services to the criminal justice system. The average wait time for a competency examination in Michigan is six months. This results in unnecessarily long pretrial detention of people with mental illness at the expense of taxpayers. [...]
Michigan’s prison population is aging. It is the oldest in the country with an average age of 39. Nearly a quarter of all prisoners are over 50 years old and many have complex health problems that are getting steadily worse – and more expensive to treat. The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) reported last year [...]
On February 6, John Cooper, CAPPS policy director, leaders of two Michigan business associations, a crime survivor organization, a faith coalition, and a conservative interest group testified before the House of Representatives Law and Justice Committee in support of HB 5377. Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) is neutral on the bill but provided supporting information to [...]
On January 30, John Cooper, CAPPS policy director, and JT Weis, CEO of Abcor Industries, testified before the House of Representatives Law and Justice Committee at the invitation of the chair, Representative Klint Kesto (R - District 39). Their testimony emphasized the need to increase the available workforce in Michigan and to remove barriers to [...]
After nearly 45 years working on criminal justice issues, it is time for me to step aside. But I’m grateful to have been part of the movement to undo the excesses that bloated our prison population and caused so much pain and waste. I’m grateful for my caring, dedicated, enormously competent co-workers at CAPPS, our [...]
The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) estimates that as many as 850 people under their supervision are medically frail. Medically frail people are unable to perform basic tasks of daily living without assistance and are often unable to get dressed, use the bathroom, or eat on their own. These people are so frail that they [...]
Northern Michigan seeks to expand services for rural communities On September 29, health, veteran, and law enforcement professionals testified before the House C.A.R.E.S. (Community, Access, Resources, Education, and Safety) Task Force at Mid-Michigan Community College in Harrison and offered recommendations on how to improve services for people with mental illness. J. Dee Brooks, prosecuting attorney [...]