Page 12-Friday, May 15, 1981-The Michigan Daily 1,000 inmates to get early parole 4 LANSING (UPIr - The Michigan Supreme Court yesterday upheld as constitutional a controversial law providing for the early release of about 1,000 inmates to ease prison crowding. The ruling, which came with only one partial dissent, reversed a Michigan Court of Appeals decision against the 1980 law issued two weeks ago. RELEASE OF ABOUT 1,000 prisoners under the law was imminent when the appeals court ruled. The law requires that virtually all inmates' minimum sentences be slashed by 90 days when the prison population exceeds capacity for 30 con- secutive days. Those within 90 days of completing their originally sentenced minimum, thus, are immediately eligible for release through the normal parole system. An Ingham County Circuit Court judge has ruled Michigan's prisons legally overcrowded and ordered steps to ease the problem. IT WAS NOT CLEAR how soon prisoners will be released. Gov. William Milliken had warned Michigan's aging and crowded prisons would face serious problems - in- cluding possible disruptions - if the law was not upheld. Milliken and other leaders have war- ned the federal courts may step in and take over the prisons if the long- standing problem is not alleviated. THE STATE Corrections Com- mission had notified Gov. Milliken earlier this year that the law's con- ditions had been met for him to issue an emergency crowding declaration. The law was passed after Michigan voters rejected a proposal to raise the state's income tax for five years to con- struct new prisons. The supreme court action came in a suit brought by L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County's hard-line prosecutor and a frequent critic of the governor. Patterson charged the law makes the governora"lackey" of the legislature. HE WARNED THE sudden release of 1,000 felons would send shock waves across the state. The appeals court said the law violates the governor's exclusive power of commutation under the state Con- stitution. The supreme court said the law was within the legislature's power to ap- prove indeterminate sentences and provide for the release of inmates sen- tenced under them. ALTHOUGH THE LAW has con- sequences similar to commutation, it derives from a separate constitutional grant of power, said the majority opinion signed by Chief Justice Mary Coleman and Justices Blair Moody Jr., Charles Levin, Thomas Giles Kavanagh, John Fitzgerald and James Ryan. "The purpose of the instant legislation is to reduce the intolerable level of over-crowding which charac- terizes Michigan's prison system," the court said. Justice G. Mennen Williams dissen- ted in part, saying it is constitutional as applied to sentences imposed after Jan. 26. 4 AP Photo' Modern art? Picasso's famed sculpture in Chicago's Daley Center Plaza provides an unusual backdrop for viewers examining an Air Force A-10 attack jet Wed- nesday. The jet was on display as part of Armed Services Week in Chicago. Oil industry opposes state leasing policy new casses eginning May 18 ballet modern jdZZ es LANSING (UPI) - The proposed oil and gas leasing policy for 230,000 acres in northern Michigan is a "useless ex- periment" and will push independent drillers out of the bidding and the state, petroleum firms complained yester- day. At a meeting of the state Natur al Resources Commission, oil and gas in- dustry representatives opposed a plan to substitute a "royalty bid" system on 15 percent of the acres up for lease for Michigan's standard "bonus bid" system. THE COMMISSION is expected to vote today on the methods to be used for the tentative summer auction of the acres in Missaukee and Roscommon average about $100 per acre with some parcels going for much higher prices. A FLAT 16.66 PERCENT royalty would then be charged on gas or oil ex- tracted from the site. Under a royalty system, a flat $100 per acre lease would be charged with firms bidding for the share of profits they would pay the state on their petroleum production. Department of Natural Resources staff members say they want to test the system to see if the state could reap far greater profits this way, particularly in the light of the recent oil bonanza in the northern counties. 0 6 Information 995 4242 Donce Thco re S~udio 711 N University Ann Arbor counties - a mineral lease sale which "THIS IS AN unnecessary ex- could be the most profitable in state periment and you're never going to history. prove that it worked," said one oil com- "The independents will essentially be pany representative. squeezed out of the bidding process," The oil companies said the royalty said Bill Stelzer of the Michigan Oil and system would encourage unreliable Gas Association. bidders who would lease land, but never sink wells. The now-used bonus bid system Industry representatives also spoke requires petroleum speculators to out against a plan to hold the auction make competitive offers during auc- using sealed, rather than spoken bids. tions for the right to lease a specific The inability to hear competitors' bids 1 arcel of land. Successful bids at the would prevent independent companies , < upcomingl ease spea, .heii p)wi 4y ; fr ,jging t arc, teyspd eseparate classes for: r " ," ~e Amo 'S Ys crE',v moe ' Jz . Fl sy " bi i2 'X r t g f4.a~xr' 4 '