Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was recently sentenced to 28 years in Federal Prison for Public Corruption charges. Unlike our State Prison sentencing scheme, the Federal scheme allows prisoners to earn good time credit. A well behaved Federal prisoner would serve approximately 85% of his prison sentence. That means Kwame will serve a little more than 23 and one half years. The former Mayor could also get a year off his sentence if he has a drug or alcohol problem and goes through the Federal prison's substance abuse program. This is still a very long sentence, but Federal prisoners are eager to do whatever it takes to reduce their time behind bars.
Maybe it is time for Michigan to rethink itsTruth in Sentencing Practices and go back to allowing prisioners the ability to earn "Good Time Credit" for good behavior. The costly alternative is to build new jails. The writing is on the wall!