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EVIDENCE-BASED SENTENCTING >> Good Time
Campaign Brief:
Advancing Good Time Legislation
People hear “time off for good behavior” so often in television and movies that you could be excused for thinking it exists here in Michigan. It doesn’t. Voters ended our Good Time policy in 1978. There’s no longer a way for people in our prisons to earn time off for behaving well — and no incentive to do so.
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Background
Before Michigan voters eliminated it through a referendum in 1978, Good Time was a policy that allowed incarcerated people to earn time off their minimum sentence for every month they did not receive a disciplinary infraction or “ticket.” Incarcerated people obviously liked this policy because it created a pathway toward early release. People who work in prisons liked it also, as it incentivized good behavior and thus fostered a safer and more positive working environment for them.
Eliminating Good Time quickly led to a significant increase in length of stay, and in the prison population. Within four years, the prison system was overcrowded and the Michigan Legislature introduced a similar, but less generous, system of disciplinary credits. However, this system was subsequently eliminated by the 1998 “truth in sentencing” law.
However, bringing back Good Time will take more work than simply passing a law. That’s because Good Time was removed through a voter referendum, or ballot initiative, rather than through a legislative action. According to Michigan’s Constitution, the threshold to undo a voter referendum is higher than the simple majority vote of a Legislature to overturn a law. Bringing back Good Time would require a three-fourths vote of each chamber of the Legislature or the approval of voters through another referendum.
Vision
The 1978 law was a mistake. Good Time not only incentivized good behavior and educational goals among people incarcerated in Michigan prisons, it also made working there safer for correctional officers, administrators, nurses and other professionals. And it significantly increased length of stay within the prison system, leading to significant increases in the prison population and the overall cost of the corrections system.
Because Good Time was removed through a voter referendum, it will take more work to reinstitute it, but that is no excuse to not do the work.
