More than 95% of those in prison will get out, but prisons too often have become revolving doors. Roughly 12,000 people a year leave Michigan prisons, and nearly half go back. To succeed, re-entry efforts can't work in silos. They need coordinated efforts to provide housing, education, employment and other services.
The re-entry council can provide that coordination and send a message to the entire state that this is serious business. Headed by Corrections Director Patricia Caruso, it includes Community Health Director Janet Olszewski; Labor and Economic Growth Director Keith Cooley; Human Services Director Ismael Ahmed; Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Flanagan; Keith Molin, director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority; and Greg Roberts, director of the Governor's Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives.
So far, 10,656 parolees have gone through Michigan's re-entry program, which started in 2005 and goes statewide this year. For those parolees, recidivism rates have dropped 26%, reports the Michigan Department of Corrections. But much more needs to be done. Too many inmates still leave prison without a valid state ID. Too many still don't get the medical, housing, employment, substance abuse and other services they need to stay out of prison.
The new council should investigate parolee complaints to determine what the state isn't doing right. It should examine the best re-entry practices of other states. It should make recommendations on how to improve sentencing guidelines and state laws that restrict the nearly 1.3 million people in Michigan with felony records from employment, housing and education. The new council should also push the Legislature to overturn a 1996 law that prohibits the Department of Corrections from hiring ex-convicts. That law sends the wrong message to other employers.
Michigan, with 50,000 inmates and one of the nation's highest incarceration rates, spends $2 billion a year on corrections. It's one of only four states that spend more on prisons than higher education. Reducing recidivism is a good way to control prison costs. The governor's promising advisory council must use its bully pulpit to make the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative even better.