SPOILER ALERT!

Too Many People GET

Incarcerated
The U.S. has the highest incarceration
rate in the entire world, including
countries with repressive regimes.
With only 5% of the worlds
population, the U.S. incarcerates 25%
of the worlds prison population.
Land
of the
FREE?
??

Too Many People GET

No other
country in the world
Incarcerated

imprisons as many people as the

United States.

Populace

Englan
d

Too Many People GET

Incarcerated
Contributing factors:
War on Drugs laws
Indigent Criminal Defense
system
School-to-prison pipeline
Stand Your Ground laws
Prosecutorial Misconduct

Too Many People GET

Incarcerated
Since passage of the War on
Drugs, federal prison populations
have soared

767%.

Too Many BLACK People Get

Incarcerated

Too Many BLACK People Get

Incarcerated

The War on Drugs

disproportionately
affects black

Too Many BLACK People Get

Incarcerated
No other country imprisons so many of
its racial and ethnic minorities as the
United States.
Higher rates of blacks are jailed in the
United States than at the height of
apartheid in South Africa.
1 in 3 black men are under the control of
the criminal justice system.

Too Many BLACK People Get

Under Stand Your
Ground (SYG) laws, when a
Incarcerated

white person kills a black person, its far more

Effects
of Stand
Ground
Laws
likely
that the
killing willYour
be found
justifiable,
(SYG)
by race
compared with when
a black
person kills a white
person.

Too Many BLACK People Get

Incarcerated
As level of education decreases, level
of imprisonment for black people
outpaces that of white people.

Too Many PEOPLE OF COLOR

Get Incarcerated

Too Many People GET

Incarcerated

According to a New York Times article,

Rampant Prosecutorial
Misconduct,
97% of criminal cases are settled by a
plea bargain arranged between the
defendants attorney and staff in the
prosecutors office.

Too Many POOR People Get

Incarcerated

Indigent Criminal Defense System

(ACLU Lawsuit)
Meet em and plead em
Criminal defense attorneys, appointed
and paid by the courts, spend their time
arranging plea bargains to keep the
court docket manageable. There is no
time to prepare an adequate defense.

Too Many People GET

Incarcerated

According to the National Registry of

Exonerations:
43 percent of wrongful convictions are

the result of official misconduct, like

withholding evidence in violation
of the Supreme Courts 1963 holding
in Brady v. Maryland. According to the
Brady finding, prosecutors are
required to provide the defense with
any exculpatory evidence that could

Too Many People GET

Incarcerated

According to the Center for Prosecutor

Integrity:
Multiple studies over the past 50 years
show that courts punished
prosecutorial misconduct in
less than 2 percentof cases
where it occurred. Which rarely
amounted to more than a slap on the
wrist, such as making the prosecutor

Too Many People GET

Incarcerated

According to The Innocence Projects

website:
Since 1989, 312 people in 36 states
have been exonerated through postconviction DNA testing.
NOTE:

This may not include those

whose wrongful convictions were
due to Brady (withholding
evidence) violations, those that
relied solely on (unreliable)

Too Many YOUTH Get

Incarcerated

Too Many YOUTH Get

Incarcerated

Too Many YOUTH Get

Incarcerated

Too Many YOUTH Get

Incarcerated
Under No Child Left Behind,
school funding is tied to test
results. As a result, schools are
motivated to expel lowperforming students.
No or poor education
unemployable
illegal activity

Too Many PEOPLE WITH

DISABILITIES Get Incarcerated

In one estimate, 44% of inmates have

some kind of sociopathic disorder.
70% are said to be addicted to
controlled substances.
Many others may have some form of
developmental delay including Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome, ADHD, autistic
spectrum, dyslexia,
dyslexia etc.
Some become mentally ill as a result of
being placed in the hole.
***ANY OF THESE MAY HAVE THEIR

Too Many People STAY

Incarcerated

Long incarceration terms, along with high

cost of phone calls ($.31/minute) and
relocating inmates to facilities hundreds of
miles from their homes,

breaks up families.

Too Many People STAY

Incarcerated
According to the Pew Center on
the States, Michigans 2009
average prison length of stay,
stay
at 4.3 years, was 48% longer
than the average length of stay
of the other
35 states
Michigan
taxpayers
could have
examined.
saved
more than
$530,000,000 if the
15,009 inmates released in 2009

Too Many People STAY

Incarcerated
JUVENILE LIFERS
Found to be cruel and unusual
punishment by the United States
Supreme Court but held to be
nonretroactive
according to
Michigans
Attorney
General.

Too Many People STAY

Incarcerated
AGED and DISABLED LIFERS
These individuals are no longer a
threat to society, yet cause a huge
cost burden to provide medical care.
Annual cost of an inmate with
significant health issues: about
$70,000.
$70,000
Annual average cost of incarceration
per inmate: $36,000.
$36,000

Too Many People STAY

Incarcerated
REQUIRED MINIMUM SENTENCING
+ MANDATORY SENTENCES FOR
FELONY FIREARM
NO Judicial Discretion
Longer prison stays
No credit for good time to reduce length
of incarceration.

Increased use of consecutive

Too Many People STAY

Incarcerated
Why We Need to Reform Parole
No appeal of Parole Board
decisions (no judicial oversight).
Parole Board members are
political appointees.
Authorize Parole Board to grant
parole to inmates who are
incapacitated.

Conditions inside prisons decrease life skills:

Loss of independent living skills. All decisions
are made for you: when to get up, what to
wear, what to eat, when to shower, where to
go if given permission.
Pressure to work for less than $1/hr. for
money to buy personal needs (or face
reprisals) is a disincentive.
Inmates learn that theyre losers, users,
abusers who make bad decisions, causing
lack of confidence.
Threat of violence and sexual assault causes
PTSD and inability to trust or form healthy
relationships.
Expense of phone calls or trips to distant

Too Many People Get REincarcerated

All those released from prison experience
adjustment disorder from transitioning
to a highly diverse community setting after
years in a sensory-deprived setting.

Too Many People Get REincarcerated

Prisoner re-entry services including
counseling are offered to only some
parolees,
but not to those who have supportive
families, those who have maxed out,
nor those who have been exonerated of
crimes they did not commit.

Too Many People Get REincarcerated

Some parolees are in effect re-incarcerated
for minor parole violations (like missing a
report date) in non-prison facilities like CPI
where they are allowed to leave the facility
only one hour a day.
These individuals are listed by the
Department of Corrections as living in the
community (not incarcerated).

Too Many People Get REincarcerated

The budget for prisoner re-entry services
has been slashed 50% by the Snyder
administration.
Furthermore, the Michigan Department of
Corrections recently met with providers to
get their input on a plan to compensate
them only if the parolee is corrected by
finding a full-time job with benefits within
six months of release, even though the
Department of CORRECTIONS has had

Too Many Michiganders Behind

Bars

and Sen. Proos wants to improve

prison overcrowding by making jails

WARNING!
The Department of Corrections budget of
$2 BILLION pays the salaries of many
corrections officers, parole officers, and
probation officers. It also funds many
nonprofits who employ many providers.
Other well-intentioned Michigan citizens
earn their living as detectives, criminal
defense attorneys, and staff in a
prosecuting attorneys office. Most of
these people sincerely believe they are
doing their best to keep Michigan safe.
EXPECT RESISTANCE TO REFORM FROM