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An Upper Peninsula lawmaker is trying to get to the bottom of claims the Michigan Department of Corrections is dumping recently paroled prisoners, who have no ties to the community, in Escanaba.
State Representative Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, says he doesn’t think the MDOC is busing prisoners to the U.P. town but says he hasn’t gotten a straight answer from the department as to what’s going on.
At issue is a state program that requires prisoners, when they’re released, to go back to the community they’re from.
Police in Escanaba have recently arrested a handful of people who are out on parole and not from the area.
The Michigan Department of Corrections says they have sent some people to Escanaba recently but the department says it’s only temporary.
Police and city leaders in Escanaba, however, fear the problem is bigger than what MDOC is letting on.
McBroom, who is chairman of the House Oversight and Ethics Committee, says he may take the issue up in committee to get some concrete details from the department and ensure no rules or laws need to be updated.
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A board of commissioners in the Upper Peninsula has approved a resolution urging the state Senate not to pass presumptive parole legislation in its current form.
The bill will allow parole following minimum time served if the inmate is not considered a danger to the public.
Delta County Board of Commissioners Chair Mary Harrington says they oppose the legislation because it puts the burden on the local communities and the recent dumping of parolees in Escanaba is an example of what can go wrong.
City leaders in Escanaba believe the Michigan Department of Corrections has been placing recently paroled prisoners in the community.
They say while the parolees who reenter should be from the area, they are also getting parolees who have never lived in the area.
They want the practice to stop.
MDOC concedes they have put parolees in the area but says it is only temporary.
