Government

State's workforce down 20 percent in a decade

By |

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING – The number of state employees fell by more than 12,000 between 2002 and 2012, a drop of more than 20 percent, according to Civil Service Commission data. There were about 61,500 state employees in 2002, which fell to 47,800 in 2012. That excludes employees of the 15 public universities. The decrease occurred steadily through both Democratic and Republican administrations under Govs. John Engler, Jennifer Granholm and Rick Snyder.

Public Safety

Number of juvenile delinquents in Michigan institutions drops

By |

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING – The number of juvenile delinquents committed to Michigan detention centers dropped 41 percent from 1997 to 2011, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit policy research group in Washington, D.C.
The trend mirrors a comparable drop nationally in the same period, said Ryan King, a research director with Pew’s Public Safety Performance Project. The reasons vary. “The real answer is that it’s a state-by-state story,” King said. “Nationally it’s hard to give a consistent answer, but the national drop seems to be a combination of state policy changes, a historic drop in juvenile arrests and, to a lesser extent, demographic changes.”

Policies that keep juveniles in their communities — instead of detention centers — are the top reasons why Ohio, Texas and Connecticut had the biggest drops, he said. Similar reasons are likely behind the change in Michigan, experts say.