Public Safety

A 2002 Bureau of Justice study of 272,111 prison releases across 15 states found that perons exhibited low public safety risk following release after a homicide conviction. Among those released after serving time for murder, 1% were arrested for another murder and 17% were arrested for another type of violent offense. These rates fall far below new arrests among those convicted of other crime types. Persons released after a homicide conviction were rearrested at a considerably lower rate (41%) than released prisoners generally (68%). (Langan, P.A 1994 Bureau of Justice Statistics)

The Network for Victim Recovery of DC (NVRDC) has stated: In order to fully support communities who have experienced violence, we must evaluate all the root causes of crime that affect crime victims and defendants alike -- poverty, lack of access to education, lack of safe housing, institutional racism, and other systemic biases. (Letter to Chairman Charles Allen and Staff. The Second Look Amendment Act, Stumpf, B. 2019)

The U.S. has underinvested in key policies and programs to tackle the root causes of crime. One example is access to effective and affordable treatment for substance use disorder. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that 58% of people in state prisons and 68% of those serving jail sentences between 2007 and 2009 reported having a drug use disorder in the year prior to their admission. (Drug use, dependence and abuse among state prisoners and jail inmates, U.S. Dept. of Justice Bronson, J., Stroop, J., Zimmer, S. 2017) But only one-quarter of them reported participating in a drug treatment program while serving a sentence in prison or jail. (Opiods: Treating an illness, ending a war. The Sentencing. Ghandnoosh, N., & Anderson, C. 2017)

Prison isn't the most intellectually stimulating environment, but the dimmest corners of the criminal justice system may be the perfect place to liberate an otherwise wasted mind.

The average sentence length nearly doubling from 1990 to 2009; the average minimum length of stay for all Michigan offenders was 2.4 years in 1990 but 4.3 years in 2009. For violent offenders in Michigan, the average stay was 3.9 years in 1990 but 7.6 years in 2009. There were only 4 states that approached Michigan's number for violent offenders in 2009. (PEW Study, Id at 13)

From 1999 through 2014, while operating without a sentencing commission, the Legislature passed dozens of laws that increased maximum penalties and increased the sentencing guideline ranges.

Persons released from state prison in 2018 served an average of 44% of their maximum sentence length before their initial release.!Those serving time for murder served an average of 58% of their sentence (Bureau of Justice Program, 'Time Served in State Prison,' 2018)

Among those released from prison in the U.S., time served varies widely by crime type. The median time served (in years) for select crime types among those released from state prison in 2018; 17.5 years for Murder (Based on people released from prison in 44 states in 2018, accounting for 97% of all people released from state prisons that year). (Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, PEW Research Center, 2018)

In the violent crime category, people convicted of murder spent a median of 17.5 years in prison before being released (See Chart CHIC ATTATCH CHART -- INFO AT: "Americans Divided over how much time prisoners should spend begin bars | PEW Research Center)

Get this. Nicholas Kelly has to wait 30 years to see the parole board for the first time. Paradoxically, prisoners serving LWOP see the board after 10 years. If they receive a flop, they see them every 5 after. This means someone serving a life sentence has the opportunity to see the parole board five times before Nick sees them once; Virtually meaning his sentence is harsher than a life sentence!

Nick's solid support networks consisting of his family and friends, local churches, re-entry organizations, religious organizations, and many others from his community in Grand Rapids.

Leaving someone in prison longer after they proved they've changed and have shown they have the resources and passion to make it out in the world, is contradictive to "rehabilitation" and points more towards retributive punishment. In reality, restorative justice is what brings forth true, lasting change to people convicted and more importantly the victims.

Nick took his own initiative to better himself by doing everything in his power to change and is a perfect candidate for early release. He has also done many thing's off record, like often mediating for conflicts on the yard between rival gangs, which in many cases would've likely resulted in serious injury or even death. Nick has both book and street smarts which are useful in everyday situations.

"A range of international studies shows that life imprisonment is of little utility given the extremely low rates of reimprisonment among people convicted for violent crimes such as murder." (Current Issues in Criminal Justice, Anderson, J.L. 2019)