SUBMITTED

LANSING — The House Michigan Competitiveness Committee approved the Senate’s bipartisan criminal justice reform package last week.
Sen. John Proos has led the effort on the 21-bill package to make reforms throughout the criminal justice system, from probation to prison time to parole and integration back into society.
“These reforms are about focusing Michigan’s criminal justice system on using smarter, data-driven approaches to efficiently and effectively rehabilitate prisoners so they can eventually be successfully reintroduced back into society,” said Proos, R-St. Joseph.
Senate Bills 5-24 and 50 include reforms to better track and evaluate recidivism data, expedite medical commutation hearings, encourage partnerships with outside volunteers beneficial to prisoners, and provide a tax credit for employing a probationer or parolee.
SBs 13, 15 and 17 — sponsored by Proos; Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge; and Sen. Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake — would limit the revocation time that a probation violator would serve for technical violations, allow judges to shorten a probation term as a result of good behavior and provide an incentive to probation agents and supervisors to keep probationers out of prison.
SBs 23 and 24, both sponsored by Proos, would update the state’s swift and sure probation sanctioning program. The reforms would allow a circuit court to institute a swift and sure sanctions court and accept eligible participants from other jurisdictions.