No way to cut a budget

Apparently, only the Associated Press (AP) was looking earlier this week when Lansing lawmakers on Tuesday approved a $55 billion plan for roads and colleges. The story was published Tuesday by Crain’s Detroit Business.

With the Mackinaw conference coverage taking top priority this week, this plan slipped through with little examination by anyone.

The plan, put together in a span of hours according to AP (amazing what our legislators can do when their summer vacation is at risk), has already passed out of House/Senate conference panels and is set for a vote in the House this coming week.

There’s one specific part of the multibillion dollar plan that is just wrong. There may be others, but this one caught my eye.

To save money and use it to fix roads, the Lansing legislators will close the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake, which is just north of Ann Arbor. Closing the school will save $7.5 million.

The Maxey Boys Training School is where boys 12-21 year olds are sent, instead of prison. It’s a 60-bed facility with about 50 boys housed there right now. The boys sent to Maxey require specialized, intensive rehabilitation treatment and a high level of security to provide personal and community safety.

Maxey’s staff is made up of clinical professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists and certified social workers. Individual, group and family approaches are used to stabilize behavior in areas such as sex offender treatment, substance abuse, criminal behavior and behavioral health (mental health).

I’ve been to Maxey. Once. A kind-hearted guy I used to work with, Lou, used to make a monthly run to Maxey to donate blankets and other supplies. I went with him one month.

Maxey is better than prison, but it’s difficult to go there and see what’s going on. The thing to remember is that it isn’t prison. Yes, it’s a lockdown facility and should be. No, there are no hardened adult inmates there who can move these boys further along a criminal path.

Maxey is there for a reason. As bad as it may be in the eyes of some, Maxey offers a better chance at some level of rehabilitation than prison. Health and Human services spokesman Bob Wheaton was quoted in the AP story as saying his agency will give judges viable alternatives on where to send those housed at Maxey once it closes.

The last time I heard something like that was from Gov. John Engler, known for closing 11 clinics for the mentally ill, including the Lafayette Clinic in downtown Detroit. The ill were just turned out into the street when the closing bell rang. Most of them ended up in prison.

If we’re talking an overall $55 BILLION here, then $7.5 million is next to nothing to keep the Maxey boys out of Jackson Prison and others like it. Think about it – where are the judges going to send these boys?

You know as well as I do.