The State of Michigan has growing legal problems regarding its' defunct Judiciary and the broken system that has been operating against residents. The ACLU, on February 22, 2006, filed a suit naming the State of Michigan and Jennifer Granholm, alleging that "Michigan is violating the state and federal constitutions by failing to fund and oversee a system to ensure that criminal defendants, who can't afford an attorney, receive sufficient legal representation." The Detroit News on Thursday, also reported that "as many as 90 percent of the people who are charged with serious crimes in Michigan are forced to use public defenders because they don't have the money to hire their own attorney."
A Press Secretary for Jennifer Granholm was quick to state that "obviously the governor is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of all citizens." I couldn't disagree more with Granholm's propaganda department. Michigan routine engages in interfering with basic rights on a daily basis when it comes to privacy, property, and family. The culprit to many of the violations is excess federal funding programs that base payment on negative program results.
Even though the Public Defenders aren't funded, Michigan is quick to fund its' Friend of the Court operations, including the 45% over-participation that shouldn't even be in the program in the first place. Let's take this excess money and provide it to the Public Defense funds as soon as possible. For each rushed judgment in a Family Court Case that results in a child support order, the State of Michigan gets additional funding. For each inmate that is housed in County Jails from the federal inmate population, additional money is sent to the County. Follow the money and you can start to follow where the rights violations occur most frequently.
It's time to scale back programs that don't work and give the money back to the people instead of raising our taxes. It's simple, it's right, and it could be done overnight.
