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    Tag: doc

    Shifting prison politics: How GOP is getting smarter on crime


    By Scott123, Section News
    Posted on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 12:35:29 PM EST
    Tags: prison, reform, corrections, doc (all tags)

    Bridge Magazine on prison reform in Michigan.

    Comments >>

    The real danger of early release: An administration that doesn't care (and sledgehammer killers)


    By Nick, Section News
    Posted on Fri Jul 03, 2009 at 07:25:45 AM EST
    Tags: Granholm-Cherry, MDOC, DOC, Marlan, parole, early release, Dunlap, California, sex offenders (all tags)

    They say rotten things always happen in threes.  Natural disasters, celebrity deaths, giant errors by the Granholm-Cherry administration that wind up mistakenly putting convicted rapists and killers on the street...

    First there was the accidental release (sans medication) of a convicted butcher-knife killer who'd racked up 124 major misconducts in prison.

    Seven days later we learned that the Democratic administration accidentally released 62 convicted sex offenders... rapists, pedophiles... nice people.

    Now, the very next day, we learn the folks at Granholm and Cherry's Department of Corrections ignored for a month an arrest warrant to pick up a parole violator named William Dunlap who'd allegedly beaten and robbed his girlfriend, Fran Wolf.  According to the Ivory Tower, this "mistake" was much more costly than the previous two may have been.  

    At 3:30 a.m. on June 14 -- only 20 minutes after the last bartender left - Wolf was in the bar's office when Dunlap approached her from behind and bludgeoned her with a sledgehammer before stabbing her multiple times in the chest in front of a security camera, police said. Dunlap fled with a few thousand dollars, police said. Police found him four days later, hiding in a crack house in Detroit.

    If Dunlap had been apprehended on the warrant before the murder, he would have been detained pending a special hearing to determine whether he violated parole. A guilty finding most likely would have returned him to prison, Marlan said.

    "The state could have prevented this murder," said Deila Ruiz, a longtime friend of Dunlap. "He should have been locked up."

    According to good old Russ Marlan it is "not uncommon for investigators with busy caseloads to take a month or more to track down parole absconders."

    And by "parole absconders" he means convicted criminals who wind up taking sledge hammers and knives to the girlfriends they'd just gotten done abusing while the administration twiddled it's thumbs for a month.

    Think about this, kids... Dunlap was initially released through all of the proper channels.  He was out on parole.  Now the Granholm-Cherry administration wants to set loose early THOUSANDS of additional violent convicted criminals. Dunlap was the low hanging fruit.  He was one of those they ALREADY thought was safe to release.  

    The thousands of additional cons they want to release now (as they make room to import Californian prisoners) have NOT been paroled yet.  In some cases that means they're literally considered MORE dangerous than Dunlap.

    So let's say we cut them loose.  Say we turn out another 2,000 or 3,000 violent felons and they violate their parole.  Are we supposed to believe the administration will be willing and able to track them down and execute the warrants to lock them back up again?

    They had a warrant here and still let Dunlap live in the same apartment with the woman he'd just pummeled.  That "mistake" cost her her life.

    And how do Jennifer Granholm and John Cherry respond to the tragic news?  They don't. They ignore their administration's mistakes and hope we'll forget. That trouble will simply go away.

    Which is sort of tough... when they patently refuse to put the criminals away.

    Comments >>

    A Message To Our Legislators - Beware False Choices

    John Cherry's Michigan: Turning the Great Lakes State into a penal colony


    By Nick, Section News
    Posted on Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 07:42:29 AM EST
    Tags: Granholm-Cherry, 2010, Cherry, Granholm, DOC, Marlan, prisons, MSP, troopers, penal colony, triangle project (all tags)

    What universe am I living in?  Did I fall asleep and wake up on some other plane of existence?  Am I awake at all?  Is this all nothing but a really bizarre bureaucratic nightmare?

    Serious questions created by a serious bit of... pure, unadulterated lunacy... coming out of the Granholm-Cherry administration.  Yesterday 100 state police troopers lost their jobs on orders from the Governor and her 2010 Gubernatorial candidate.  Last week Lansing Democrats fought to keep alive the administration's dream for a new, inefficient, hundred million dollar state police headquarters that the state police don't want.  Meanwhile, this year alone, 3,500 dangerous convicted felons are being released EARLY from prison and set loose in Michigan neighborhoods.

    So what's a state to do with fewer cops walking the beat, more law enforcement dollars swallowed up paying to provide pet projects (and big paydays) to Democratic donors / developers and a sudden spike in the number of dangerous career criminals prowling the streets?

    Import more criminals.  From California.  

    Import.  Criminals.  From California.

    Who came up with this idea, Lex Luthor?  Norman Osborn?  The Joker?  No, no and, well...

    According to Booth Newspapers, this one is the brainchild of the Granholm-Cherry team.  

    California has too many prisoners and Michigan soon will have too many empty prison cells.

    Therein lies the possibility of a "mutually beneficial partnership," Gov. Jennifer Granholm told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a letter Monday...

    In her letter, Granholm referenced earlier conversations with Schwarzenegger in which she said Michigan "could be of help."

    Granholm said she was "certain that Michigan can provide a safe and secure environment for prisoners and help prepare them for a return to California and a crime-free lifestyle."

    What's worse, this can't even be chocked up as an outside-the-box scheme to generate extra revenue for the state.  According to Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan, "we're not looking to make any money off this."  

    Marlan said in regards to the California offer, Michigan would be seeking mainly to recover labor, food and health care costs.

    Maybe we shouldn't be surprised.  The administration has already crippled our economy, swelled the ranks of the unemployed to record levels, put a nearly unbearable strain on the state's social services and grown the size of the Lansing bureaucracy to astronomical proportions (the budget has grown by nearly $6 billion since Granholm and Cherry took their oaths of office in January 2003).  Suppose it was only a matter of time before they tried turning Michigan into a penal colony.

    Plus, look at it this way... importing hardened criminals is ONE way of countering the dramatic outbound population flight we've seen the last six years.  Better yet, unlike hardworking Michigan families who've just plain had enough, Californian prisoners couldn't leave, even if they wanted to.

    (6 comments) Comments >>

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