No one
questions the decisions of the Michigan Parole Board. Someone should. They make
decisions behind closed doors. Unless the Governor questions their work—and he
never does—these people decide the fate of thousands of Michigan prison inmates
at a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers. Who are these people? This
installment of Informant America tells you.
If you were to stop people on the street at random and ask
them to name just one member of the Michigan Parole Board the chances are
almost 100% that you won’t get a single name. Yet the 10 members of the board
are directly responsible for spending over 20% of the Michigan General Fund
through their decisions about which inmates should remain in prison and which
inmates are released on parole. At least
twenty percent of Michigan’s tax dollars go to the operation of the state’s
prisons and parole/probation system.
Naming the members of the Parole Board is one of the
patronage perks of being Governor. It’s the governor’s right to decide who sits
on the board. These people are not subject to any nominating process, they do
not have to answer any questions from the Michigan House or Senate about their
philosophy and views of crime and punishment.
Let’s examine who sits on this panel vested with such
tremendous power without any routine oversight.
Michael
Eagen—he is the chairperson of the 10-member Parole Board. Eagen
worked as a prosecuting attorney with the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office for
25 years, serving as an assistant prosecuting attorney, senior assistant
prosecuting attorney, and chief assistant prosecuting attorney.
Kevin
R. Belk—he is the retired Chief of Police for Grand Rapids. He was
chief from 2008 to 2014. Belk had been with the Grand Rapids Police Department
since 1980.
Abigail
Callejas—Ms. Callejas is a probation supervisor with the Michigan
Department of Corrections, serving in Oakland County. In other words, she is a
career corrections worker who was selected from within the Department of
Correction. She started with the Department in 1998 as a probation officer and
she was promoted to a department specialist in the Office of Community
Corrections.
Anthony
E. King—King has a background in social work in college academia.
He's been a teacher and researcher at Michigan State University and Wayne State
University. His stated interests involve social work in prisons and
community-corrections settings plus community-based offender rehabilitation and
treatment programs.
Nancy
Martin—is another promotion-from-within Corrections staffer. Martin
is a 29-year veteran of the department.
Barbara
Sampson—Sampson has been on the Parole Board a long time. Sampson
has served on the Parole Board since 2003. She was appointed chairperson for a
term in 2007.
She has a background in "the system." She has
worked with the Wayne County Department of Community Justice/Adult Services, she
has been an adjunct instructor at Wayne State University, and she has been a
corrections officer with the Department of Corrections.
A former member of the Parole Board says he recalls a parole
panel review of Rick Wershe’s application for release in which Sampson blurted
out her opinion that Wershe is personally responsible for the entire downfall
of Detroit. That’s quite a singular achievement for a white school drop-out who
was arrested at age 17 and sent to prison for life at age 18.
Brian
Shipman— another career Corrections officer who has been
recycled from within. He's been with the Michigan Department of Corrections for
over a quarter of a century. Shipman started his career with MDOC in 1989 as a
corrections officer, i.e., prison guard.
Sonia
Amos-Warchock—yet another plucked-from-within former prison
guard. She has been a corrections officer, probation agent, parole/probation
supervisor, acting area manager, and parole violation specialist.
Jerome
Warfield—at first glance it seems Warfield is a clergyman serving
on the Parole Board. That's true but it's not all the truth. Warfield is a
pastor at the Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, but he also has
been the Chairman of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners.
Sandra
Wilson—another recycled Department of Corrections employee.
She
has worked for the department since 1994, beginning as probation agent. She
worked her way up to a variety of supervisory positions in the Department of
Corrections.
***
For those who haven’t been keeping score, nine of the 10
members of the Michigan Parole Board are an ex-prosecutor, an ex-police chief,
an ex-chairman of the Detroit Police Commission or recycled career staffers
from within the Michigan Department of Corrections. Only academic Anthony King
does not appear to have a law enforcement background.
There’s not a single former criminal defense attorney or “straight”
clergyman or K-12 educator on the board. As noted, Warfield is a clergyman but
he has been extensively involved with the Detroit Police Department.
These are people who, by default, believe the police and
prosecutors are always telling the truth, that they would never fabricate facts
or evidence against a prison inmate. Some might say this group is ripe for bias
based on their life experiences.
But they are not accountable to any outside
review as they make parole decisions affecting thousands of lives and millions
of tax dollars. That won’t change unless the voters demand it.
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