An East Grand Rapids man and convicted sex-offender is back behind bars after amassing a vast collection of pornographic images of children, but Kent County prosecutors say they’re frustrated the man had been granted parole in the first place.
Earlier this week, authorities arrested Michael Anthony Rosales of East Grand Rapids on child pornography charges. Rosales had already gone to prison once before, having been found guilty of downloading over 164,000 images of explicit images of children, and this time around, authorities say he collected 50,000 more. While Rosales faces decades behind bars, now as a habitual offender, Prosecutor Becker says he worries that stories like this one could become more commonplace in the future.
“Yeah, it is a concern for us, it’s a concern because if you look at what the legislature is doing in terms of criminal justice reform, there is a tremendous push to release non-violent criminals,” Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told WGVU. “We are going to see more of this I fear, because of the push to not send people to jail and not send people to prison,” Becker said. “People do get and commit more crimes, so unfortunately I think we are going to see more of this.”
In January, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law sweeping criminal justice reform bills that aimed in part to keep non-violent criminals out of prison. The legislation passed in the Michigan Senate with bi-partisan approval.