In 2009, due to historic budget cuts across the country, states were looking for ways to cut corrections costs while maintaining public safety. One of the main options was to try and level off the ever-growing prison population, and to explore different ideas for allowing prisoners to earn early releases.
One suggestion explored by the different state legislatures was the implementation of “earned time” programs. These programs would not only reduce the costs of incarceration, but they would also help offenders become more successful in their communities upon release.
To help state lawmakers understand more about the impact of early release programs, the National Conference of State Legislatures Criminal Justice Program in Denver, Colorado, in partnership with the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center on the States, based in Washington, D.C., issued a report titled “CUTTING CORRECTIONS COSTS – EARNED TIME POLICIES FOR STATE PRISONERS.” The report was authored by Alison Lawrence.
Here are just a few of the highlights found in that report:
* This report only looked at “earned time” programs in which individuals were required to complete some type of program to receive the credit. The report did not look at “good time” programs in which individuals earn credit toward early release for maintaining positive institutional records.
* At the time of the report, 31 states were already utilizing earned time programs.
* In 2003 the Washington Legislature modified the amount of earned time that could be granted to eligible prisoners, increasing it from 33% to 50% of the total sentence. The results showed that the felony recidivism rates was 3.5% lower under the new law, as opposed to what it was under the old law. The ultimate cost analysis showed that under the new law, the state received about $1.88 of benefit for each $1.00 it spent.
* In 2007, Kansas implemented an earned time policy that resulted in a 35% decrease in crime among parolees who participated in the program. Parole revocations went down by 45%. This reform took place after the University of Kansas initiated a survey asking resident whether they wanted state money spent on prisons or on reentry programming. 80% percent wanted the programming. The public now worries that crime will increase if these programs are ever cut.
* In 2008, Pennsylvania adopted an earned time program to help reduce the prison population and increasing costs of incarceration. The head of corrections says the new approach makes prisons more manageable by improving inmate behavior and increases the odds offenders will lead crime-free lives upon release.
Although the data for this report was based on “earned time” programs, as opposed to “good time” programs, the ultimate findings confirm what MJA has been trying to demonstrate to all those involved in our attempt to restore a good time program in Michigan prisons. This data proves that by giving incarcerated citizens an opportunity to early credit toward an early release, we would be making our prisons safer for prisoners and staff, we would be helping to better prepare prisoners for release back into the community, and we would be saving the tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars – and we would be doing all of this without any significant impact to public safety.
