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Featured Blogs
Day of Empathy 2020: What Can It Mean for You?
I walked into my first Day of Empathy event nearly four years ago feeling terrified, socially averse and embarrassed. I was ashamed and had been shamed. I had only recently completed my three years of [...]
Holding families together when they’re “Locked Out”
When someone is sentenced to prison, they aren’t the only one doing hard time. The people who wait for them at home — their friends, their family, their loved ones — also experience the hardships [...]
Can My Prior Record Be Used Against Me?
A new senate bill package has the potential to change how habitual sentencing enhancements are applied in Michigan. At the beginning of January, state Sens. VanderWall (R-Ludington), Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) & Santana (D-Detroit) introduced a [...]
Mary Lynn Stevens retires, but her passion for people and persuasion remains
Mary Lynn Stevens always told me that her job as development director for Safe & Just Michigan was the capstone of her career. After all, it brought together many of the things she is most [...]
Get to know the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration recommendations
In January 2020, the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration issued a list of 18 legislative action items that — if enacted — could revolutionize Michigan’s county jails and the lives of [...]
What did the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration recommend?
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 [...]
Meet Amy Smitter, SJM’s new development director
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 [...]
MDOC in 2018: By the numbers
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, [...]
Safe & Just Michigan’s Top 10 for criminal justice reform in 2019
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 [...]
Serious Misdemeanors Defined
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 [...]
Changing narratives on long sentences, catching up with board member Dr. Cobbina at a criminology conference
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 [...]
What’s an “assaultive crime”?
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 [...]