MICHIGAN'S PROPOSED "GOOD TIME" BILL NEEDS TO BE REWORKED. THE GIGS UP, THERE IS NO SOLID SUPPORT FOR DAY FOR DAY OR ONLY DOING HALF OF YOUR MINIMUM SENTENCE IN MICHIGAN.

#CriminalJusticeReform #PrisonReform #MassIncarceration #SocialJustice #JusticeMatters #MichiganPolitics #MIleg (short for Michigan Legislature, often used on Twitter) #MichiganReform

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THE GIGS UP, THERE IS NO SOLID SUPPORT FOR DAY FOR DAY OR ONLY DOING HALF OF YOUR MINIMUM Tending The Peace

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Criminal justice advocates in Michigan have been doing very hard work, but Republicans and conservative Democrats feel like their being sold a lemon and Michigan prisoners feel like their being sold ocean front property on the back 40 of the prison. That's because your asking for to much and many prisoners feel like day for day is to much and a pipe dream. Let's talk about what a majority of Legislatures and the Governor can support.

First, they are very unlikely to support more than ten to fifteen days per month. Second, every day must have an evidence based reason for giving it. Third, the BILL must provide financial savings for taxpayers. Fourth, prison administrators must be afforded discretion in giving the days.

A BILL that could pass the Legislature and be signed by the Governor, might include:

1. An explanation of how a prisoner who is cooperative and open to transformation, saves taxpayers money when their level of rehabilitation decreases their threat to public safety and increases their potential for success;

   
   

2. How sharing this efficiency savings with cooperative prisoners in the form of time off or being allowed to serve a percentage of their minimum sentence in community placement, saves taxpayers money and gives cooperative prisoners a headstart back in the community while under strict supervision.

I think a better more receptive BILL would focus on community placement. Verses receiving time off a prisoners sentence, a prisoner would increase their opportunity to serve part of their sentence in community placement. Doing so, would not disturb the length of a prisoners minimum sentence, but simply change a prisoners placement from inside the bars to outside the bars. I discuss this in an earlier article of mine entitled:

TIME IS CLOSING IN ON THE FUTURE OF THE MICHIGAN PRISON SYSTEM. WHAT OPTION WOULD TAXPAYERS CHOOSE TO MANAGE THE MICHIGAN PRISON SYSTEM? MODERN HOUSING AND ADDITIONAL STAFFING TO MEET MODERN STANDARDS OR PLACING MORE PRISONERS IN COMMUNITY PLACEMENT WITH MODERN MONITORING AND SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGIES?

Reach out to both your Michigan Democratic and Republican Senators and Representatives and tell them it is time to transform the Michigan prison system for the future. That all national standards, including the American Correctional Association Standards and American Bar Association Standards must be followed in Michigan. In order to manage the prison population to implement these standards, change must be made.