LANSING — According to a report released by the Department of Education, Michigan increased spending on prison improvements more than five times as quickly as it did on public education over the last three decades— like six other states in the country.

“Budgets reflect our values and the trends revealed in this analysis are a reflection of our nation’s priorities that should be revisited,” Education Secretary John B. King said in a news release. The expenditures of all states in the nation on prisons and jails increased at triple the rate of funding for public education. 

“For far too long, systems in this country have continued to perpetuate inequity,” King said. “We must choose to make more investments in our children’s future. We need to invest more in prevention than in punishment, to invest more in schools, not prisons.”

According to the report, the increase in prison expenses “has been driven by — among other factors — an increase in the number of people incarcerated in prisons and jails.”

The report shows that Michigan increased its spending on schools by 18 percent and its spending on corrections by 219 percent. The gap between increases placed it among six other states with the same problem.

ACLU of Michigan Executive Director Kary Moss said Michigan has been on a descending spiral for approximately two decades in terms of spending on public education, which only starves schools and creates inequality in funding between school districts.

“When you juxtapose that against the prison budget, it is just shocking,” Moss said. “The good news is there are many legislators on both sides of the aisle that recognize that the prison system has to shrink. Now, the question is what does it take to really bring about the reforms that will right this ship and make clear what our priorities are as a state?”