Who Values Education?

Sadly, it would appear that Michigan values incarceration over education, considering its long history of cutting education budgets while increasing the MDOC’s funding. Michigan seems content to contribute to the prison industry by closing schools, laying-off teachers, and decreasing State and student financial aid to universities by 25% over the last decade (according to the Senate Fiscal Agency)… all part of the disturbing and well documented history of Michigan’s budgeting choices made now, and for well over a decade. It’s a frustrating reality and we need to question the State’s priorities as we review Governor Snyder’s proposed budget. Now, with Michigan ranked in the top five worst economies in the US, during the worst recession since the great depression, we find ourselves with a tough business-minded governor who is finally forced to slash the bulging MDOC budget which consists of 23% of the State’s general fund. Many, fiscally intelligent citizens are feeling it’s about time we cut from this bloated budget. “Where better to cut from, than the prisoners,” you would think.

As a prisoner I agree with you. In fact, many prisoners are staunch supporters of Governor Rick Snyder. Many of us know he was what Michigan needed. The sentiment of most Michigan prisoners was that a business man, not a politician, is what Michigan truly needed. Many prisoners thought it was about time this dysfunctional system got an overhaul. We’ve sat here for years and watched facilities being run at sub par levels by dozens of unnecessary administrators and overpaid babysitters. See, the truth prisoners know from viewing the system from the inside is that Michigan’s prisoners are not what you see on TV shows like “Lock Up Raw”. They’re quite docile places on a day to day basis, free of violence. Problems with staff are rare and usually caused by the poor temperament of that one “bad apple” officer who enjoys stirring up trouble. Realizing that, the inmate population thought the cuts would come from the administrative level or from the correctional staff. Still, initially, this was not the case. Despite personnel wages and benefits consuming 75% of the MDOC budget (after a 13% wage increase between 2000 and 2009, according to a recent study by The Center For Michigan), the cuts came from areas like food services, making the quality poorer. After implementing a statewide menu, a reduction in programming staff followed along with other small changes that made the quality of living for prisoners worse.

Yet, we still supported the new Governor and you did not hear of us rioting or being more violent because we understand cuts are necessary. The inmate population has behaved quite well despite drastically lowering their standard of living. They even continued to support Governor Snyder. They cheered the Governor when cuts to staff finally began to leak out and a few Administrative positions were consolidated. And they weren’t baited when the correctional officers began to put their foot on the necks of inmates statewide, enforcing imaginary rules, using disrespectful language, and trying to incite inmates to act up. You didn’t hear of rioting or an increase in staff assaults. The inmate population knew these were just tactics of a few desperate individuals at many facilities trying to justify the need for their positions. Yet, as the MCO unions are powerful and lobby quite well, only small cuts were made to actual staff positions. They run campaigns of fear, telling the public that if they’re laid off it will jeopardize their fellow officers and the safety and security of your communities. This is a clear and desperate scare tactic meant to cultivate public support. However, the fact is, with the camera and sensor technologies in prisons these days, far fewer officers are actually needed to monitor order within Michigan’s prisons. Michigan’s prison violence statistics are considerably lower then the States’ surrounding it which comes from an intelligent level system, proper use of inmate security classification and risk screening, and modern technologies (e.g. cameras, sensors, metal detectors, wiretaps, etc). It does not come from five men sitting around a desk for hours, reading the paper, and consulting on how to max out their overtime … scheming how to use sick days to get the fattest paycheck with the least amount of days spent actually working. Yet, this being Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder had to stick with the status quo and, now here we are choosing to keep four out of five men around that desk and cutting education once more.

It’s well know that he cut schools and higher education in the free world, but now the education system is further impacted by heavy-handed cuts inside prison as well. Approximately 60 cuts in fact, and those are coming directly from present teachers and classes… from GED and Vocational training departments alike. The prison education system is one of the few programs actually proven to lower recidivism. Especially the vocational training. Without skills like vocational training what can we expect of the nearly 86% of prisoners who return to your community? The fact is, they will re-offend. The   statistics clearly show that. Lack of education is proportionate to increased incarceration and violent behavior. And while an individual’s level of education can improve their ability to obtain employment, we can’t forget or dismiss the social advantages of education. Education doesn’t simply qualify you for specific stations in life. It’s an important stage in a person’s growth and maturity. In instills both initiative and responsibility, and offers options that weren’t necessarily available prior to a prisoner’s incarceration.

Education improves the prisoner’s ability to function socially, increasing their chances at a successful reintegration with society. Although you say cuts must be made (and there are intelligent and responsible ways to make those cuts without sacrificing touching positions), there is still an existing contract with a company called JST. Their function is to facilitate PLATO … a computer program that no facility uses, and no teacher I’ve spoken to has ever seen. Eliminate that contract, and the State would save approximately one million dollars a year. Plus, I bet you didn’t know that DIT (the State’s department of technology) charges $800 a year per computer for servicing. That’s every computer on count in all facilities and the Central Office. Many of them still under warranty from Dell, and over 65% of them being used by GED or Vocational students in closed secure networks that never get viruses or need IT support. Yet, $800 per computer, per year. Why not use the warranties and service computers on an as needed basis, saving more than a million dollars a year?

Lastly, out of the approximate 60 positions cut, 0 principals fell under the axe. A position that is obsolete whereas classification directors place students in classes and officers deal out discipline. Why shield principals from being cut when they make $25,000 more (approximately $85,000) than the average teachers? Also, just as obsolete are two positions that no one has any idea whet they do… The Special Education Consultant and the Vocational Education Consultant, again, two unnecessary positions, established years ago, when Governor Engler made prison Big Business and fostered a tradition of nepotism, creating jobs for friends and family without any actual need. So, now prisoners are fed up when you’re taking the one thing that prepares them for the free world and gives them a little better chance to succeed in a State with a 11% jobless rate. Yet, they will not act up in here. It will be when they return to your streets, your communities, uneducated, jobless, and with no skills except the ones that earned them their first prison stay. No, it’s only your communities that will suffer, and then your budget for the next year when they return for their next prison term (over and over, again and again), until someone finds the humanity to stand up and say, “No more cutting education!” Find your savings elsewhere. Leave the education system alone, as it’s the only thing proven to lower recidivism and help cultivate young men and women into productive members of society, ready to give back to the communities they once took so much from.