Michigan Votes Forum

make any headway with this at all, we will have to make ALL those changes. they did. why can't we? we haven't made ANY changes. we seem to be doing everything wrong. now, the two lowest states, maine and texas, have flat time. no good time. no parole boards. three strikes. and no early release whatsoever for lifers. THEY can do it without parole boards and without releasing inmates early. why can't we? the absolute lowest state for per inmate per day is a YANKEE state, not a southern state. and it's right up there amongst the HIGHEST paying states. is maine cruel to it's inmates? no. is texas cruel to it's inmates? no, but you seem to think so. if you've read the data at all, and it seems like you have read SOME of it, you will know that not every state has ALL of these measures, but every state that pays less than we do has one thing we don't. that is CONTROL of their state spending. we don't have that here.

that michigan has already tried some of these measures. we USED to have good time, but we don't anymore, the citizens of this state got tired of repeat offenders going through the 'revolving doors' of our prisons. we USED to have community based corrections, that is until the communities got sick and tired of inmates escaping through their back yards. we used to have a higher parole percentage, that is until the parole boards got tired of being blamed for the crimes that their parolees were committing. i could go on, g-ma, but i'm sure you get the picture. another thing all those states have that we don't have is the GUTS TO MAKE CHANGES WHEN AND WHERE NECESSARY, AND THE GUTS TO LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF THOSE CHANGES. it seems that releasing inmates takes more guts than the legislature or the governor can muster. they haven't even touched this bill in months.

conneticut, not maine. silly me....

our state parole board paroled 1. 79% of all drug offenders. 2. 70.1% of all 'other non-violent' offenders. 3. 34.9% of all 'other VIOLENT' offenders. 4. 10.3% of all SEX offenders. this is information provided by the state of michigan parole board to the department of justice. it would seem that the groups you complain about NOT being paroled ARE being paroled at a fairly high rate. no, it's not 100%, but i'm sure that 100% of them don't deserve parole. now, you releasing inmates would only worsen the situation for the people who are responsible for monitoring all these inmates. how are we going to pay for the increase in manpower necessary to keep track of those five thousand extra inmates?

how about some proof from YOUR SIDE about what we spend two billion dollars a year for that forty other states DON'T. i can't believe that we MUST SPEND TWO BILLION DOLLARS TO KEEP INMATES WARM, COMFY, AND CODDLED TO YOUR SATISFACTION. come on, g-ma. you keep telling us that the inmates here get nothing but air and an occasional meal or two. now is your chance to JUSTIFY the added expenditures that other states have found ways to live without. time to back up what you say. prove your side of this. tell us why we need to spend two billion dollars a year. better than that. tell us why it's a good idea to release inmates. try not to repeat yourself. i know how much you hate that.

The mistakes happen when they done away with them, took the get tougher on crime stance, And added a broad range of crimes which increased our prison population. They also started keeping them in way past their ERD because of people like you who blamed every inmate if ONE was released and committed a heinous crime.

YOU have not got the guts either. Where is your solutions. All you are doing is poo-poo our ideas but coming up with no sensible ones of your own. At less this bill addresses one solution it is a start where are yours?

for us a few posts ago. all of the things you listed are possible solutions. notice that not one of them involved releasing inmates. that seems to be your only solution.

It's time for you to come up with SENSIBLE SOLUTIONS without your coddling bulls___.

blame every inmate if ONE committed a crime. we blamed every inmate that committed a crime. we also blamed the parole board for releasing them to be ABLE to commit those crimes. you have such a selective memory. who knows, you probably voted for jennifer for her 'get tough on crime' stance. she sure isn't releasing any inmates anytime soon, is she?

to justify the terrific expense. there seems to be no other reason to pay two billion dollars a year but to coddle inmates. if you have OTHER excuses, please let us know.

Why have'nt YOU? You have no guts either except to complain and degrade anyone that at less is trying. What is YOUR problem?

Still no answer!!!!

I do not need any excuses you need to find solutions for your concerns.

The whole country has budget problems, You need to get a life and get with the program instead of just complaining.

The whole country has budget problems, You need to get a life and get with the program instead of just complaining.

??????????????????????????????????

Then YOU need to get the GUTS to get them into effect. Better yet why don't you run for a political office.

because YOU don't have the guts to get our elected representatives to do their jobs? you wouldn't vote for me. i'm a tough on crime conservative republican. your fellow democrats wouldn't vote for me, i'm a tough on crime conservative republican. you wouldn't vote for a person who wishes your loved one to spend every single day of his sentence in jail, would you? the union slugs wouldn't vote for me, i'm against them. they waste my money. now, that only leaves the conservatives of both parties. their can't be too many of them left.

the program that says that we all have to let criminals out of our jails so we can afford to keep criminals in jails? THAT program???? no, g-ma. YOU have to "GET WITH THE PROGRAM" of forcing, if necessary, our legislature to lower the amount of money we charge ourselves to keep our inmates. we need to force the business of running prisons in this state to be ACCOUNTABLE. we need to force the business of running prisons in this state to be RESPONSIBLE WITH THE TAXPAYER'S MONEY. we even tried privatization ONCE, but it didn't lose money fast enough for our governor. she shut it down.

can't find any justification for spending two billion dollars? i can. it's called C-O-D-D-L-I-N-G.

people like you. what's your problem? YOU can't seem to get any results at all. you can't even seem to find the right solution to any of the problems except the one YOUR loved one is having. that leaves all the rest of the inmates to sit and rot in jail. you have chosen the least effective and least efficient solution to the tenth largest prison problem in the country. THAT'S forward thinking alright.

As I said you need to get with the program. You get something going to get your concerns addresse I might even back part of it. There was other reasons the GEO prisons were closed down also.

what were those reasons, g-ma? perhaps because they were very close to actually earning a PROFIT? heaven forbid...

What guts do you have. Quit complaining and show me some guts.

in your posts, g-ma. why is that? don't you have any justification as to why it costs us two billion dollars a year to coddle inmates? why are we the tenth highest paying state per inmate in the nation? what makes michigan inmates worth so much money?

No we won't go in to that here it's not what this site is about, but I can tell you from personal experience that things were not kosher there. We have some messed up KIDS because of it.

And I don't see alot in your postings. Besides the people who post here are stupid and dumb remember.

I guess if that's how you think your never going to get any resolution to your problem.

What happen to all those tough conservatives did they finally see the light.

Yes nurses have to have so many CEU's each year but we usuually get CEU'S in our speciality field.

conservatives here... only varying degrees of liberal.

fine with that, aren't you? you don't seem to be doing anything about THAT EITHER.. did you suddenly wake up one day and say, "hey, this place sure is screwed up. i wonder why?" those screwed up kids are the products of 'doing things for the children' instead of LETTING THE PARENTS RAISE THEIR CHILDREN. it's amazing how many liberals are into things they have no business doing, simply because they think they know how to do it better. raising a child is STRICTLY the responsibility of the parent. the state has no business getting involved. if this state had any smarts, and any nads, they would get out of all of the things they have no business doing, including messing with judges sentences. let's get back to simplicity. if a judge says ten years, the inmate DOES TEN YEARS. easy enough to understand.

people here ARE dumb and stupid. you keep proving that to me time and again. now, what makes our inmates worth two billion dollars a year?

You have no idea what you are talking about. But I know your an expert on everything, nobody knows better than YOU. HaHA

Yes people are stupid and dumb, YOU keep proving that to me time and again.

The troll who continuously rails against the prison system reform proposed in this bill now posts this: “now, what makes our inmates worth two billion dollars a year?” That’s a very good question, and the troll should answer it. He/she/it/they is/are the one(s) objecting to reasonable means for cutting the cost of our Michigan prison system. Instead, what the troll proposes is simplistic nonsense that is virtually impossible to accomplish and therefore will not cut prison operating costs at all. In fact, the do-nothing proposals guarantee future increases in prison operating costs. Every responsible and informed analysis of the escalating cost of operating prisons in Michigan (and elsewhere) points to reduction in the number of inmates held as being the key to reducing prison system operating costs. This bill is not the whole solution, but it is a step n the right direction for Michigan – accomplishing a true reduction in costs while conserving the retributive purpose of our penal system and without compromising public safety. (signed) A Conservative Taxpayer For Responsible Government.

This a very educated posting. I back this bill 100%.

And it was taken care of.

You finally fest up.