The state of Michigan has been known for its large intake of prisoners and felons in the past decade. With one of the largest prison populations in the country Michigan is looking to change its image entirely by reducing the number of inmates. The prison situation, in general, has been a highly debated topic between politicians and law enforcement officials alike. Whatever their ideology might be, it is a consensus among everyone that Michigan should be looking to improve their image and turn away from a corrections department haven.

According to an editorial in the Detroit Free Press, Michigan is one of only 4 states that issues a greater portion of its budget to prisons than to higher education. This article also describes some recent legislative efforts to decrease the $2 billion corrections budget. Senate Bill 827 - sponsored by Sen. Alan Cropsey - was introduced in 2009 and was referred to the Committee on Judiciary, where it remains.

In the opinion of some individuals, incarcerating someone who is mentally handicapped will do nothing to improve their way of life or the way they look at situations, which would in turn, be futile to the improvement and stability of the community. If, instead, they were sentenced to treatment to care for their mental disabilities, they would have a higher likelihood of improvement and understanding of societal rules and norms. According to the description of specialty courts on the Michigan.gov website, "Specialty courts, also known as problem solving courts, are innovative programs designed to address an offender's underlying problem. Trial Court Services staff assigned to specialty courts strive to afford access to therapeutic justice by facilitating efficient and comprehensive problem solving court problems" (Michigan.gov).

According to The Detroit News article on the Detroit murder toll, Police Chief Evans discussed some of his new policy implementations. In this description, he described the increased reliance on statistics that will be used. According to this article, "Police officials now use statistics to locate crime hot spots...Detroit discarded the method a few years ago." Evans talked about how Detroit will be delving deeper into this method of policing (LeDuff and Hunter). This method is very interesting and is increasingly being used by police departments across the nation that are working on a limited budget. It is used as a tool to use limited resources in a conservative way; it allows the department to focus its attention on the places that are most likely to be crime hot spots.