PRISON-RELEASE DISCRETION AND PRISON POPULATION SIZE - STATE REPORT: MICHIGAN

(h) The prisoner has not yet completed programming ordered by the department to reduce the prisoner's risk, and the programming is not available in the community and the risk cannot be adequately managed in the community before completion. [...] If a prisoner is denied parole under this subdivision, the parole board must provide the prisoner a detailed explanation of the deficiencies in the parole plan so that the prisoner may address the deficiencies before his or her next review. [...] The sentencing judge in the court before which the prisoner was convicted and sentenced may file a written objection to the granting of parole release, in which case the parole board must not grant parole.39 2.3. [...] Medical or “compassionate” release Prisoners who are deemed medically frail45 may be released on medical parole upon the recommendation of the Bureau of Health Care Services in the Department of Corrections.46 The Bureau must consult with an appropriate medical specialist who is not employed by the department to evaluate the health condition of the prisoner, and the Board and Bureau will collabora. [...] Prisoners subject to general rules of parole release The form of judicial prison sentences in Michigan is highly unusual, in ways that affect the degree of indeterminacy across the system as a whole, the upper capacity of the system to produce large prison populations, and the relative absence of institutional checks if political pressures or other conditions push the system toward prison growth.