Making Michigan Safer and More Just with "Second Look"

Guest Opinion

By Scott Tompkins | Nov. 16, 2024

Michigan’s prison system is in crisis. Our state’s prisons are overcrowded, largely with elderly, sick, frail folks. People who have worked hard to change their lives. People who could be released to their families.

As someone who has done time in prison, I can tell you that for staff and those incarcerated, things are hard enough even when there is no overcrowding crisis.

Today, I live in Grand Traverse County, working for Before, During, and After Incarceration (BDAI), an organization that provides services and resources for incarcerated folks and their families.

Those of us who work for BDAI see the same problems in the Grand Traverse County jails as those which exist in the state prisons. Overcrowding leads to unsafe conditions for both an overworked staff and those who are incarcerated.

Staff continue to be vocal about the abhorrent workload and lack of safety, affecting morale and retention. Advocates and those incarcerated have also raised the alarm.

We can address this problem that creates real, human consequences for all Michiganders. Folks across the state are now advocating for a pending policy in the Michigan Legislature, called Second Look, which provides a real solution to change our incarceration system for the better while saving money at the same time.

We can make things better for incarcerated people and their families, as well as prison staff and our communities. Second Look provides a safe, just, money-saving path forward. We need Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and House Speaker Joe Tate to stand firm in their commitment to making a better Michigan and get Second Look to the finish line.

Increased pay incentives to attract more staff have failed to recruit people to become corrections officers—overcrowding in Michigan prisons is that bad. Besides holding elderly folks and those who have done the hard work of changing their lives, on average, those in Michigan prisons serve the longest sentences in the nation.

So how would Second Look help? Second Look would allow those incarcerated for 20 years or more to petition the sentencing judge to review the person’s record while incarcerated and determine if the person should be placed before a parole board and considered for release.

Most of the folks who have served 20 years have “aged out” of crime—especially those sentenced as minors to life without parole. They’ve made the change from adolescents to adults who are far more risk averse. Once they leave prison, they want to stay out of prison and be with their families. Many of them are seniors who are ill and getting poor care that would be better and cheaper on the outside.

In general, it costs $34,000 to $48,000 per year to keep folks in Michigan prisons. Add to that about $8,000 per person, per year for medical care and multiply that by the 5,000 people serving life without parole, and it’s clear that continuing to keep our prisons overcrowded is simply unsustainable.

We can safely change that. For all the reasons cited above, we need leaders of the Michigan House and Senate, Joe Tate and Winnie Brinks, respectively, to help make Michigan prisons safer and less crowded for prison staff and those incarcerated.

For those of us on the outside, it would save a lot of money and reunite mostly elderly incarcerated with their families. That makes for better neighborhoods and communities, a win for all of us.

Scott Tompkins is the board president for Before, During and After Incarceration. He has lived experience of the criminal justice system, having spent eighteen months in local jails and Michigan’s State prison system. Scott’s days are now filled with personally redemptive activities and doing work in the community to lessen other’s hardships and re-entry issues. Scott is also on the Board of Life After Incarceration-Transition and ReEntry in Ypsilanti and volunteers with ACLU of Michigan working on bail reform issues.