Michigan House Bills 5129, 5130 and 5131 are a package of bills, which must be passed together to become effective. These bills would restore “good time� to prisoners and eliminate the terms “disciplinary time� language from the existing statutes and would give the MDOC and the Parole Board a little more leverage as to what would be under the “jurisdiction� of the MDOC.

Our understanding of the bills is that they would eliminate Truth in Sentencing and give prisoners, who are serving their time productively, the incentive to earn good time and perhaps be reassigned to alternate methods of incarceration or be released at an earlier date. However, there are caveats for violent offenders.

We are aware that the State of Michigan is experiencing serious financial problems. The MDOC is using a substantial amount of the State’s yearly budget, which in turn, takes away from other necessary funding, such as education and health. No one wants to endanger the public by releasing prisoners who shouldn’t be out among the general population. However, there are protections built into these bills to prevent such an event from occurring. The State’s primary focus should be to prevent crime and provide funding and programming for the education and mental health systems to guide the State’s young children so that they can grow to become respectable productive citizens.

These bills will help the prisoners who are striving to turn their lives around while in prison. Some are first offenders that were given harsh sentences while others with more serious crimes are given lighter sentences. These prisoners work hard to learn a new trade, obtain their GED, work within the prison facilities, and have kept out of trouble. Prison should be a place where the prisoner has the incentive to reform. You can hold a prisoner for their full sentence and release them after their time is served. However, the prisoner may come out bitter and becomes a repeat offender and defeats the purpose of prison time.

Prison population reports show that by 2009 the prison population is expected to reach 57,000 prisoners, which would be 8,000, more prisoners than the MDOC is equipped to accommodate. There would be no room to shuffle prisoners around to accommodate them. There would be insufficient funding for building and/or reopening prisons to accommodate the increased amount of prisoners. In February of 2005, the MDOC had a bed capacity of approximately 49,000. These projections were made before the 2005 closures of MDOC facilities. Imagine the drastic increase once the closures are accounted for in the projection figures.

We strongly believe that the report makes it clear that this population increase is due to the enactment of Truth in Sentencing, the fact that Michigan’s sentencing guidelines were changed around the same time and that the Michigan Parole Board often unilaterally and arbitrarily keeps prisoners beyond their Earliest Release Date, despite good conduct, good reports and favorable factors.

Passage of these bills before your Committee could make not only a major impact on the State’s budget problems, but also on future generations by redirecting the funds which are allocated to MDOC to a more positive approach to crime prevention. We further believe that Truth in Sentencing together with the new sentencing guidelines, have not had a positive impact on the State of Michigan or its citizens.

State funding has been and continues to be cut to essential civilian services, the prison system keeps expanding; prisons are being closed to cut costs creating chaos and unhealthy conditions in the overcrowded prisons, which may be in violation of the federal statutes governing correctional facilities. Increased overcrowding will only create chaos among the prison population to the point where it may cause riots and killings among the prisoners as they would fight to survive in such deplorable, unhealthy and unsafe conditions.

It is also our understanding that the Chairman of your Committee, William Van Regenmorter, was the author of Michigan’s Truth in Sentencing legislation and, most likely, will not favor having something he worked to enact set aside. However, the facts seem clear that something must be done very soon to rectify what is now an emergent situation and these bills are the beginning of a reasonable and more proper solution. Sometimes, we as individuals need to set aside our personal pride and opinions and work to rectify the issue in a way that will benefit all parties involved. At this point, Truth in Sentencing has not proven to be a productive measure. On the contrary, it has caused chaos and financial woes than remedy the problem of preventing crime. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but clearly it has failed to meet the expectations it was meant to meet.

In addition to the language already set forth in these bills, I firmly believe that any final bills enacted should contain language making them retroactive. Making the laws retroactive may initially create a little more work on the part of the MDOC and the Parole Board, but the positive results should compensate for the situation in the long run, i.e. less prisoners, less dollars being spent by MDOC and a reduction in the prison population.

Many of us have loved ones incarcerated in Michigan's prison system. Many of us are also voters who have the right to be heard. By not reviewing and considering these bills your Committee will be doing a grave injustice to the citizens, children of the State, as well as the families of those prisoners being held in the Michigan prisons.

We respectfully request that the Committee place House Bills 5129, 5130, and 5131 on the agenda for discussion and vote. It was presented to you in September of 2005 and is sitting on your Chairman’s desk without so much as a glance. It is time to set aside personal pride and opinions and listen to the people of the State of Michigan. The overpopulation in the State’s prisons will not get better. It will only get worse. Is your Committee prepared to take responsibility for the health and safety of the prison guards and staff when overcrowding becomes so out of control that the prisoners riot and while placing the very lives of those around them at risk over a bed, a blanket or food? Not to mention the risks of disease spreading throughout the prison population.

We feel that it is necessary for all of us to express how strongly we feel about the situation. We strongly believe that making this change and reinstating “good time� retroactively will greatly improve Michigan’s financial woes and overpopulation issues. It is the Committee’s duty to take the first step in finding a solution. This step should be placing House Bills 5129, 5130 and 5131 on the agenda for discussion and vote.

The time to act is now!

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