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Featured Blogs
The Business Case for Criminal Justice Reform
Michigan has often struggled to find people qualified to fill certain jobs, such as skilled trades workers and health care professionals. Licensing laws that are structured to prohibit anyone with a criminal past from obtaining [...]
First bills from Jails Task Force report reach state legislature
The recommendations of the Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration are getting ready to officially start their move through the Michigan Legislature next week. When people ask me about the best ways to [...]
Pull up a seat at the Criminal Justice CAFE
I had been looking forward to this great opportunity as the new community engagement specialist at Safe & Just Michigan. Then, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer put the state under shelter in place status the day after [...]
A Discussion on Driver’s License Revocations
The Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration identified the suspension of driver’s licenses for reasons that have nothing to do with unsafe driving as one of the major drivers in Michigan’s jail [...]
MDOC Presentation on Prison Population Decreases due to Covid-19
On Tuesday, June 9, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections held a meeting to discuss the prison population and the Michigan Department of Corrections’ response to the Covid-19 crisis. However, due to pending litigation, the [...]
A Discussion on Ending Counterproductive Criminal Penalties
The final report of the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration found that most arrests in Michigan are for misdemeanors that harmed no one. Research shows police squander many hours and large amounts [...]
An Evidence-Based Discussion to End the Sex Offender Registry
There are more than 44,000 people on Michigan’s bloated sex offender registry — more people than are incarcerated inside Michigan prisons — and this number grows yearly. For more than 90 percent of people on [...]
How Michigan compares to other states on COVID-19 in prison
Michigan has one of the worst epidemics of COVID-19 in prisons in the country, both in terms of the number of people infected and the number of people who have died of a COVID-19-related illness. The [...]
Blacklisted: The evidence-based reasons to end the sex offender registry
(Please note that portions of this blog use legislative and legal terms that aren’t Safe & Just Michigan’s preferred terminology. Safe & Just Michigan prefers to use humanizing person-first terms. However, as this post deals [...]
The Problematic Division between Violent and Non-Violent Offenses
The division between violent and non-violent offenses has long been used in the criminal justice system, and subsequently, in the reform of the system. In recent years, there has been growing acknowledgement of the problems [...]
Meet Rick Speck, Safe & Just Michigan’s New Community Engagement Specialist
For Rick Speck, the process of change relies heavily on role models — both having one and being one. While he was incarcerated, it was the presence of good role models that led Speck, now [...]
The Need to Push Further and the Wall of Truth in Sentencing
The COVID-19 crisis presents an unprecedented challenge to our country that touches on all aspects of our society, including the criminal justice system. Knowing that there is broad public support for protecting incarcerated people in [...]