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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 [...]
What’s Next for the Clean Slate Package
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 [...]
Clean Slate clears committee with change
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 [...]
Justice Votes 2020: Presidential Panel
In late October, presidential candidates and formerly incarcerated people came together in the historic Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia to discuss criminal justice reform. "Justice Votes 2020: A Presidential Town Hall" was a joint effort [...]
Lifer law, prison and a community day event
Last week, on October 10, Just Us Now and the National Lifers of America Inc. held a community day event at the state Capitol. The crowd was an eclectic mix of people who have served [...]
How will Clean Slate work?
The Clean Slate for Michigan package is a set of six bills that will transform how expungements are handled in our state. Once passed, they will open up expungement opportunities to more people, allow people [...]