Corrections: other; report of certain aggregate data for prisoners who are not citizens of the United States; require the department to provide. Amends 1953 PA 232 (MCL 791.201 - 791.285) by adding sec. 7b.
Summary
Senate Bill 445 would amend Michigan’s Corrections Code to require the Department of Corrections to publish a public report on its website every 90 days, beginning six months after the bill takes effect. The report would provide aggregate data about a defined group of prisoners: those under the department’s jurisdiction who are not U.S. citizens. The required data would include each prisoner’s immigration status, the convictions for which they are serving sentences, and their home country, defined as their country of birth.
The bill is primarily a transparency and reporting measure rather than a change to sentencing, incarceration, or immigration enforcement policy. It would add a new section to the Corrections Code and create an ongoing administrative obligation for the department to collect, aggregate, and publish the specified information. The bill does not appear to alter prisoner eligibility, release rules, or criminal penalties, but it would make certain demographic and case-related information about noncitizen prisoners publicly available in aggregated form.
Impact
SB 445 would amend 1953 PA 232, the Corrections Code of 1953, by adding a new reporting requirement in section 7b. The Department of Corrections would need to establish a recurring process to compile aggregate data on noncitizen prisoners and post it online every 90 days. This would affect the department’s administrative and data-reporting practices and could require coordination with records systems that track immigration status, convictions, and country of birth. The bill would not directly change substantive criminal law, but it would create a new statutory disclosure obligation affecting the department and prisoners who fall within the bill’s definition of “qualified prisoner.”
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and available context, the measure appears to be framed as a neutral information-gathering and public reporting bill, with no recorded committee transcript or vote history indicating strong support or opposition in the materials provided. Because the bill focuses on aggregate reporting rather than direct policy changes, its tone is administrative and oversight-oriented. No explicit sentiment from hearings or floor debate is available in the provided record.
Contention
The main point of potential contention is the bill’s focus on prisoners who are not U.S. citizens and the publication of their immigration status, convictions, and home countries. Supporters would likely view the measure as a transparency tool for understanding the composition of the prison population, while critics may see it as singling out noncitizen prisoners and raising privacy, fairness, or stigmatization concerns. Another possible issue is the administrative burden on the Department of Corrections to collect and publish the data on a recurring basis, especially if existing records are incomplete or not standardized.