Michigan Prison Sentences Among Longest In U.S.

By Peter Payette

Prison sentences in Michigan are among the longest in the U.S., according to new research from The Pew Center on the States.

According to Pew’s research the average prisoner in Michigan spent less than two-and-a-half years in jail in 1990. Twenty years later the average stay was well more than four years.

Adam Gelb, one of the authors of the report, says it isn’t because of an increase in crime.

“Clearly in Michigan over the years there have been a number of decisions by state leaders to put more people behind bars and keep them there longer than in other states,” he says.

Michigan’s prison population peaked around 2007 at more than 50,000 inmates. It has been falling since and is now around 45,000.