The legislative process can be lengthy, but we can help usher it along. Email Senator Victory today to request a hearing for SB649. You may write your own impassioned email or copy and paste the one we have written below. Respectfully let Senator Victory know our voices must be heard.
I am writing this email to request a hearing on SB649: Good Time Credit. As a taxpayer and citizen of the state of Michigan, I feel passionately that we should implement a Good Time credit system for our incarcerated citizens to reduce recidivism, increase safety within the Michigan Department of Corrections for both correction officers and incarcerated citizens, and finally to spend less tax revenue locking people up longer than any other state.
As one of only 6 states with no incentive for incarcerated individuals to better themselves, our 100% Truth in Sentencing law means incarcerated individuals in Michigan will serve on average 6.5 years. This makes us #1 in the country for length of time served. As such, we consistently outspend other states, currently spending 17.9% of our general fund budget on corrections compared to the national average of 6.9%. This does not even begin to acknowledge the human price paid by society and the affected families across our great state. We should instead enable Michigan the ability to allocate future funding to successful reentry programs and crime reduction policies by implementing a Good Time policy.
I strongly believe that victims’ voices are paramount in this discussion. To that end, studies show that the majority of victims actually support credit systems that reward good behavior with a reduction in sentence. The majority of crime victims understand that positive motivation creates meaningful change and offers the greatest likelihood of success outside of prison.
Senator Victory, please schedule a hearing for SB0649-0652 so the people of Michigan may finally put an end to the public crisis of mass incarceration. Allow Michigan the opportunity to join the vast majority of the nation in implementing a data driven Good Time policy.
It has been time long ago to take action on this and make it happen. Now you can show all voters that you do care and you are not afraid to act on this piece of legislation.
This is where the system has failed us as a family. My son openly admitted to his crime was given 5 to 15 for Romeo and Juliet CSC. Due to a lack of classes and getting him where he needed to be to receive the special help he was turned down for parole and just went up for a second time and is halfway through his classes book learning is very hard for him and should have been very evident. He had never been in any trouble would have protected his girl with his own life and has had no trouble while in prison. He is NOT a danger to society which is what our prisons were set up to protect us from, NOT A PUNISHMENT SYSTEM. My husband is no longer able to do many of the things it requires to run our home and our son was the one who took care of everything he’s done his time plus they finally got him into an alternative prison and our hope is that when this class is completed they will see it possible to send him home. My biggest complaint is regroup so many into the CSC category raising fear and panic in our own neighborhoods and making it nearly impossible to gain employment to move forward. I believe we also raise the stigmatism that these people cannot return to a normal life and possibly even the parole board uses the letter CSC as the basis to judge their release. We all walk through life and different outlooks from our past history that affect how we look to other people, but I would like to see the facts used as to what the behavioral documentation has been while incarcerated when considering their ERD rather than the letters C S C. Thank you for your time and reading this.