For years, when policymakers were asked how they would protect the public, the answer was to put more people behind bars. Although this policy applied to the entire nation, Michigan saw the effects more than most states.
The effect was an explosion in prison populations and, in turn, an explosion in the budget for correctional facilities, MSU economics professor Charles Ballard said.
“Eventually, people started to notice that it cost a lot of money to keep those people in jail,” Ballard said. “Michigan is (now) one of the states that spends more money on prisons than higher education. That’s an unfortunate reflection of our priorities.”
A study done by the Pew Center on the States looked at the length of time prisoners stayed in jail from the years 1990-2009. In Michigan, inmates served 4.3 more years in custody than the average offender released in 1990.
They found that a significant proportion of nonviolent offenders released in 2004 could have served shorter prison terms, between three months and two years, without impacting public safety.
“This has been an area that has been understudied in the past,” Ryan King, Pew Center on the States public safety performance research director, said. “There’s been a significant amount of study about the growth, (but) there’s been a lot less studies about how long people are staying in there.”
“It’s essential for policymakers to address the problem, particularly for nonviolent criminals that could be punished in less expensive ways,” King continued.
In Michigan, one month in prison costs $2,343, according to the report. This multiplied by the 23 months longer offenders are spending in prison means that the average annual cost of keeping offenders in prison is $53,247 more than it was in 1990.
Paired with a tightened budget in Michigan, this has prompted policymakers to find an alternative to punish nonviolent criminals.
Music education senior Stephanie Erspamer said she thinks that better options for nonviolent criminals could include community service.
“It’s more of a positive relationship with the community rather than just (criminals) being put away and building more resentment there,” Erspamer said.
Most people are OK with the incarceration of criminals who have committed homicide or rape, Ballard said.
But for those involved in drugs, there is a national consensus that prison time is not necessarily the best social policy. Options such as ankle monitors are starting to be looked into as substitutes for prison time, Ballard said.
“We are in the midst of a national dialogue about how to balance the need for public safety against the very real cost of incarcerating folks,” Ballard said.
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