By C1 Staff
JACKSON — Correctional officials have asked a Supreme Court Justice for more guidance on expectations of lawbreakers sent to the Michigan prison intake center.
Detroit News reports that inmates arrive with sentencing orders and other paperwork, but little explanation of why a judge may have prescribed a certain prison term or what the goal is.
“It would be helpful for judges to tell us the intent of their sentences,” said Mich. Corrections Director Dan Heyns. “If it’s strictly to provide public safety, we know how to do that. But if the intent is to get to the root cause of their criminality, tell us that.”
Lawmakers recently attempted to revive failed 2014 legislation calling for reforms of 1998 sentencing guidelines and parole policies.
Heyns says he is under pressure to spend less, since 1 in 5 state dollars is spent on corrections.
Supreme Justice Richard Bernstein recently visited the intake center to get a better feel of the sentencing system.
He wanted to understand what prison is like and learn how he and the state’s highest court might improve coordination between judges who dispense justice and incarceration officials who administer it.
Bernstein said he wants to work at change but it “won’t happen overnight.”
Heyns pressed that most offenders are released within two years, which means they don’t have a lot of time to do any correction.
“It calls into question, what are we really accomplishing with these people? It’s a huge cost.”