Michigan Senators are making a big push for prison and parole reform this year.
Over twenty of the 52 bills introduced during session last week were about criminal justice reform.
Several of the bills focus on probation and parole violations. They would change penalties for probationers that commit technical probation violation and discontinue services to parole absconders.
Republican Senator Rick Jones is the main sponsor of a couple of the bills. He says they have been working on the package for a while.
“The main reason is to make it a better system. We want people put out that do not recidivate that find jobs and return as a citizen. And we want to save the state a lot of tax dollars.”
Others bills would change how data for criminal justice statistics is managed and collected.