WNDU-TV
February 9, 2010
From WNDU-TV:
It’s no secret Michigan has some serious issues with money and crime.
That’s why the Wolverine State has launched a program that aims to address both of those problems in a way that might surprise you.
The Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative (MPRI) is a program designed to put prisoners back in the workforce.
For years, Michigan’s jails were filled to the brim.
“We went through that whole period of being tough on crime and we locked people up so Michigan ended up with one of the largest prison populations in the nation,” said Marvin Austin, Regional Director of the Heartland Alliance at the Opportunity Center in Benton Harbor.
That large prison population was often a burden budget-wise. Michigan’s cost of housing a prisoner is well above the national average of about $23,000, closer to $29,000 a year per prisoner.
“But the reality is most of the people that go to prison are going to come home sometime. So if you’re just locking people up you just wait until their sentence is done, you send them home, what you find is the cycle back into prison,” Austin said.
That’s why the state created the MPRI, which helps place ex-convicts who have served their time.
MPRI is administered through local sites like the Opportunity Center.
The Michigan Department of Corrections says that when MPRI started on a limited basis in 2005, 5 out of 10 prisoners returned to jail for new crimes within 3 years of being released.
Since then, that’s decreased to less than 4 out of 10.
So, the one-time cost of less than $2,000 Michigan spends on the re-entry program per prisoner at places like the Opportunity Center can help offset nearly $29,000 dollars annually; if it’s the difference between making a successful life outside of jail and recidivism.
“So literally everyone wins,” Austin said.