What happens when you bring a task force together including Democrats, Republicans, legislators, victims-rights advocates, county commissioners, law enforcement officers, and formerly incarcerated people? A list of 18 recommendations designed to reduce the jail population across the entire state. According to the original executive order the Michigan Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration was [...]
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At one point, Amy Smitter dreamed of a career in far-flung American embassies across the globe. She prepared for that future by studying political science and studying Russian and Eastern European culture and history. But today, Smitter finds satisfaction in making a difference much closer to home. She’s devoted her career to nonprofits in Michigan, [...]
Each year, the Michigan Department of Corrections releases a factbook of statistics describing their department, the state prisons and the people who are incarcerated inside them. This year’s factbook, which looks at statistics from 2018, was recently released. Overall, the facts and figures point to continuing trends: Michigan’s prison population continues to fall, while our [...]
As 2019 winds down, we thought we’d take a moment to look back at a busy year for criminal justice reform in Michigan and take stock of all that’s happened. From the introduction of Clean Slate to the passage of Raise the Age, the formation of the Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration [...]
The bills in the Clean Slate legislation widen the expungement process to include hundreds of thousands of people who had been excluded from it and also automate that process in many cases. However, the bills also contain terms that can be confusing. For instance, many bills refer to “assaultive crimes” without giving a clear definition [...]
Every year in mid-November, thousands of criminologists from around the world gather in a large U.S. city for the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology (ASC). ASC is the primary professional association for criminologists and other academics that study crime. This year, the conference took place in San Francisco, and the theme was [...]
The bills in the Clean Slate legislation widen the expungement process to include hundreds of thousands of people who had been excluded from it and also automate that process in many cases. However, the bills also contain terms that can be confusing. For instance, many bills refer to “assaultive crimes” without giving a clear definition [...]
Given the amount of discussion of the Clean Slate package lately, it would not be surprising at all to wonder where we are in the legislative process with this package of bills designed to greatly expand the clearance of public criminal records across the state of Michigan. Last Tuesday, October 29, the House Judiciary Committee [...]
On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the House Judiciary Committee met for a fourth time to consider the Clean Slate legislative package. This time, they voted it out of committee and sent it to the floor of the House for a vote of the full chamber. But before doing so, they adopted substitute versions of the bills [...]