Mich. grants clemency to 100 prisoners in 2 years

LANSING, Jan. 17, 2010 (AP): Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has granted clemency to 100 prison inmates in the past two years as part of a new approach to handling commutation requests.

The Lansing State Journal reports that Granholm's pace of commutations is far higher than any in the last four decades.

The newspaper says that during Granholm's first five years in office, the one-time federal prosecutor approved 18 commutations. But in 2008 and 2009, state corrections statistics show that Granholm commuted the sentences of 100 prisoners.

Officials say the reasons for the increase can be traced to the state's budget crisis and a state-commissioned report that said Michigan is keeping people in prison too long and spending too much money on its $2 billion-a-year prison system.

Information from: Lansing State Journal, http://www.lansingstatejournal.com