By: Ricardo Ferrell - Advocate, Reform Outside the Box
With there being a dire need for parole reform in Michigan, it’s time to rethink the unnecessary longstanding draconian practices of keeping parole eligible elderly prisoners behind bars.
As of October 1, 1992, the Michigan Parole Board started treating those serving parolable life sentences the same as if they were serving a life without parole term. The Life-Means-Life practice adopted by the Parole Board in the early 90s was created by a hard nose republican who was Michigan’s governor for two agonizing terms.
Former Gov. John Engler, along with his predecessor James Blanchard were instrumental in the prison boom we saw in the mid-80s well into the 90s.
This build-up helped to create what we now call Mass Incarceration in Michigan. The MDOC seen its prisoner population grow by some 400% in the last 3 decades, reaching its peak of approximately 51,555, an astronomical number by far from what it was before the Blanchard/Engler Administrations, which was right around 12,000.
Both Blanchard & Engler were responsible for 30 prisons being constructed and opened. Among the most impacted by the life-means-life practice is parolable lifers who went from serving on average between 12-18 years before being paroled, to now serving ridiculous amounts of time, e.g., 35, 40, 45, 50+years before they are actually paroled.
The disturbing aspect about it is, even though parolable lifers are serving for the same crimes as those receiving term-of-years sentences, they are often treated in a disparate fashion solely because they so happen to be serving life sentences in many instances, from the same judges that hand out i.e., 15 to 30 years, 20 to 40 years etc., after being convicted for the same identical offenses.
However, it’s an indisputable fact that parolable lifers often make the best candidates to release, as they experience offender success, complete their 4-year paroles, and only contribute to less than 1% of the recorded recidivism rate.
Since the year 1900, statistical data shows there is not a single lifer that reoffended by committing the same crime which promoted the original life sentence, a striking and rare statistic in comparison to others who reoffends.
I am a parolable lifer and have been incarcerated since 1981 and fit the above category of parole eligible elderly prisoners who no longer pose a risk or threat to public safety. I’m 64 years-old, a chronic care patient, and my propensity toward violence is virtually nonexistent, as I’ve demonstrated by not incurring any assaultive misconducts since June 1997, close to 25-years.
Unfortunately, I seriously assaulted another prisoner who had been convicted of brutally murdering my mother. After being sent to the Ionia Supermax Level XI, it served as a turning point during my incarceration.
All throughout the early 80s, there were several incidents which resulted in my being placed in Solitary Confinement (Administrative Segregation) after being found guilty of assaulting other prisoners with a weapon. I am not that same impulsive individual today that I was back then. My thinking is no longer distorted, and my mind is clear of the criminality that it once entertained. I must admit, there were some really dark and bleak moments during my 40 years of incarceration, and I sometimes ask myself, “how did you make it this far?” The short answer I came up with is, I simply wanted something different out of life besides indulging in counterproductive nonsense and the continued perpetuation of violence and other negative self-destructive behavior.
When an individual decides that they want to change for the better he or she must work to renew their thinking, so as to form a much better attitude and strive to get rid of poor behavior and replacing it with positive and constructive undertakings.