Oakland County

County commission disputes early release of violent offenders

By Jeremy Selweski
C & G Staff Writer

OAKLAND COUNTY — In a rare display of bipartisan support, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution in opposition to the early release of violent criminals by the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC).

The resolution was introduced by the board’s public services committee last month and later adopted by the full board at its Feb. 1 meeting. It requests that in light of some recent crimes that have taken place in the county, the MDOC conduct a review of the criteria that is used to determine the parole eligibility of violent and repeat offenders.

The resolution was strongly championed by commissioners Craig Covey, D-Ferndale, and Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, who were instrumental in bringing the issue before the nine-member public services committee. Runestad, the committee chair, was not surprised to see the resolution receive unanimous support from the board.

“Public safety is an issue that knows no partisan bounds,” he said. “It’s our most basic right as citizens, so we need to make sure that it’s not being trampled on. The first and foremost role of government is to ensure the safety of its citizenry. Everything else has to play second fiddle to that.”

Although resolutions carry no real legislative weight, Covey expects the MDOC to give it serious consideration, as it is coming from the governing body of Michigan’s second-largest county.

“I hope that when they receive this resolution, it makes them stand up and pay attention,” he said. “We’ve had three pretty heinous crimes committed over the last few months, all by parolees who were just released from prison. Something needs to change here if we want to keep our residents safe.”

The three incidents that Covey referenced all took place in southeast Oakland County over a span of less than one month last fall.

In the first crime, a parolee was arrested for robbing and beating a man at his Ferndale home on Oct. 31. The suspect had been sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison in 2002 and was released in October 2011, just six days before the alleged crime took place.

Then, on Nov. 10, a homeless couple — both of whom are convicted felons with lengthy criminal records — were charged with forcing their way into an elderly Royal Oak woman’s house, beating her to death and robbing her. The man accused of the murder previously had been sentenced to five to 30 years in prison for home invasion, but was paroled in September 2010, despite prior encounters with the law for rape and arson.

Finally, on Nov. 18, a man was arrested for attempting to break down the door of a Royal Oak resident who was home at the time. The suspect, who has a long criminal history of burglaries and thefts, was released from prison only six days earlier after serving close to the short end of a three-to-30-year prison sentence.

According to Covey, these recent events have alarmed county residents and officials alike and have caused fear and outrage within the local communities.

“There seems to be a strong belief that these criminals are getting light sentences and then being let out (by the MDOC) near the minimum end of their sentence,” he said. “There also does not appear to be a lot of supervision for these parolees once they’re out. When people like this are being released from prison and within a matter of days are beating someone up or robbing them, or worse, there’s something wrong with the system.”

Runestad agreed. He suggested that officials in Lansing consider reopening some of the state prisons that were closed down under the administration of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Most importantly, though, he believes that the MDOC needs to be far more careful in selecting which prisoners are suitable for parole.

“I don’t think that anyone who has been convicted of a violent crime should be looked at first for early release,” Runestad said. “That just doesn’t make any sense to me. We need to do a far better job of vetting these criminals and making sure that they’re not being released early, just so that they can go out and prey on the general population.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Jeremy Selweski at jSelweski@candgnews.com or at (586)218-5004.