Michigan Department of Corrections Wastes Untapped Resource

The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) uses more than 2.2 billion dollars of Michigan's annual budget. It's budget has even risen 17% despite a 44% decrease in prisoner population in the same period. But even given its wasteful spending, the department wastes non-monetary assets as well. 

Michigan's prison is filled with many men who have "turned the corner" in their thinking and behavior. Many of these men are eager to give back to their peers, to mentor and encourage them to change their thinking and behavior. Many of these men, in fact, do just that, in an informal way. Nevertheless, despite this abundant resource, the MDOC often fails to use it. Prisoners are used, sometimes, as facilitators for classes like Chance for Life, but many more opportunities are ignored or actively opposed. 

For example, when I was housed in Coldwater, Michigan, a group of us prisoners started a college prep program. We created and facilitated study skills, math, algebra, English grammar and punctuation, psychology, and other classes. We had the support of a key administrator. These classes gave us opportunities to be creative (creating classes), practice management (writing proposals, following guidelines given to us, managing student requests, etc.), and develop our leadership skills (facilitating classes). At it's zenith, we had hundreds of prisoner students busy studying, learning key skills they could use to further their education. And then it was all cancelled. 

For reasons unknown, even now, the prison administration decided to cancel a program that had proven effective, had kept prisoners out of trouble, had led prisoners to invest in their own education. But after cancelling the program and sending the creators and facilitators to other prisons, the warden still claimed it was running, bragging to another warden about how great the program was. I heard this with my own ears! She didn't know one of those she had "cancelled" was standing behind her. 

This story, as outrageous as it is, happens all the time. At the prison where I am currently housed, a group of us prisoners created and facilitated several classes we called "Life Skills." It focused on employment readiness, since this prison has a vocational trades program. Companies interviewing prisoners who'd gone through our program were very impressed, and the State gave the administrator overseeing our program an award, and a promotion. After his promotion, his replacement shuttered the program. It was "too much work," although prisoners did nearly all the work. Nevertheless, the warden here (now retired) bragged for at least the next two years about the program, even though it'd been shuttered already. 

Like any bureaucratic wasteland, I suppose, MDOC administrators are keen on the credit they get when prisoners, their greatest resource, make them look good; however, actually supporting such programs after the administrators get their initial recognition is too much to ask.

In the end, it's the prisoners who suffer when administrators ignore their greatest asset. Well, prisoners, the communities they return to, and the taxpayers who continue funding a wasteful, and failing system.