DETROIT—When their prison term ends, helping convicted felons transition back into society may help Michigan transition out of its economic slump. According to Dr. Anthony E.O. King, associate professor at Wayne State University’s School of Social Work, that is what the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative (MPRI) has the potential to do.

The MPRI, a three-step plan to promote public safety and reduce Michigan’s 48 percent recidivism rate—a rate in which an ex-offender returns to prison within three years of his or her release—is in its second year of a three-year trial of releasing select groups of parolees into designated pilot sites around the state. The initiative offers inmates a variety of services that are designed to help ex-felons become productive citizens, rather than returning to a life of crime. In order for the MPRI to work, however, it needs public support, King said.

To ascertain what was on Michigan citizens’ minds, King devised an investigatory survey which asked for reactions to 15 statements focusing on four specific areas of prisoner reentry. First, the survey measured public support for spending on prisoner reentry. Other statements tested whether citizens believed that MDOC should focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment; whether citizens felt reducing Michigan’s prison population was important; and whether citizens had knowledge of what King calls the “reentry crisis”—the prison population (51,000—up from 15,000 inmates 25 years ago), the percentage of prisoners eventually released (95 percent) and the recidivism rate (48 percent, which cost Michigan taxpayers $112 million last year).

More than half of the survey’s respondents favored the use of public funds to help former inmates, but support for specific types of assistance varied. While there was significant support for helping inmates secure a home and a job, there was less support for helping former inmates secure reliable transportation. King stressed the need for a concerted effort by both the state and the private sector for the initiative to sustain any effectiveness. A majority of the respondents agreed.

“I don’t believe the state should take complete responsibility for meeting the needs of reentering inmates,” King said. “I think that private, non-profit agencies and faith-based organizations need to step in and do their part, too.”

“We’ve gone through a period in this country for the last 20 years, focused on simply punishing convicted felons with little regard for the personal problems and deficits that contribute to their criminal behavior,” King said. “However, recently in Michigan there has been a change in focus toward helping prisoners successfully rejoin society after they have been released, to cut the high costs of recidivism.”

Accordingly, Michigan would be able to reduce some of the Department of Correction’s (MDOC) annual budget, which this year exceeded $2 billion, more than 20 percent of Michigan’s total budget.

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world.