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Tuesday, July 10, 2012
By Michael Nichols
Categories: Drug Crimes
Last month the Pew Center on the States, a nonprofit division of the Pew Charitable Trusts, released a report which indicated that Michigan has the longest average period of incarceration among the 35 states surveyed. The report was based upon data provided by the National Corrections Reporting Program, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The data covered a period from 1990 to 2009.
The data indicated that in 2009 Michigan prisoners were incarcerated an average of 4.3 years which was a 79% increase from the 1990 average length of incarceration. The second closest state was Pennsylvania with an average of 3.8 years. The study also analyzed the data from Florida, Maryland and Michigan separately and the study indicated that many of the prisoners released by Michigan in 2004 could have served shorter sentences without impacting public safety. The report suggested that Michigan could have saved 92 million by releasing some of the nonviolent offenders earlier.
This report illustrates the need for sentencing reformation in the state of Michigan. “Michigan really needs to look into decreasing prison sentences for nonviolent offenders” says, attorney Joshua Covert. “The savings provided by sentencing nonviolent offenders to shorted sentences could be spent on crime prevention or intervention and actually improve public safety” Covert adds.
You can read the full report at: http://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2012/Prison_Time_Served.pdf