Jones on MDOC’s budget woes

During an interview with Michigan Messenger, Van Jones, a former White House adviser to President Obama, was asked about Michigan’s bloated corrections budget, and the report the department had overspent its budget allocations by $46 million dollars.

“I’m not surprised at all that the ‘lock ‘em up’ crowd continues to under-perform on safety and on savings, because they have no incentive to do otherwise,” said Jones, who has done civil rights work involving prisoners.

“Michigan can be a leader in the green economy, or it can be a leader in the gulag economy. It can’t be a leader in both,” he said.

He says if Michigan really wanted to challenge the corrections budget bloat, it would start by changing the way the system works. He says it is the only area in America he can think of that is rewarded for failure. He believes corrections should reflect its name, and that is to reform prisoners and provide them a clean slate upon release.

“They grow by failure. They are the only institution in America today that I know of that literally, the worse they do, they more money they get,” Jones said. “I would say if Michigan wants to innovate and save some money, tie the salaries of the wardens and the guards to the performance of the prisoners when they go home.”

“The minute the financial incentives are changed — so that you are rewarding for succeeding not rewarding for for failures — you’ll cut the prison population in half and you’ll save tons of money,” Jones said.

For Jones, this is an area where free market philosophies should be striving for an open market. He says by focusing on reforming prisoners — providing counseling, developing job skills and education — the state can open the system to competition which will keep costs low and drive innovations in programs that work at rehabilitation and integration rather that ostracism of those guilty of crimes. In turn, those issues will drive down return rates for prisoners.