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Featured Blogs
Women in Prison: Fewer but growing
While Michigan has seen its overall prison population steadily fall over the past years, this not been the case for incarcerated women. It’s important to note that women still comprise a very small percentage of [...]
The power of story
We held a meeting with the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness at the Heartside of Michigan United Way in Grand Rapids and each of our meeting guests took a few minutes to tell their stories. There [...]
A day inside Macomb Correctional Facility
The man sitting across from me never got to say goodbye to his mother. She died while he was incarcerated and he wasn’t able to be with her during her last days or to join [...]
Old, sick and expensive: The graying of Michigan’s prison population
Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, but that doesn’t mean people don’t die in our state’s prisons. In 2017 alone, 106 people died while they were incarcerated in Michigan, according to the Michigan Department of [...]
Medically Frail Parole gets a second chance
Just a few months ago, it appeared as though legislators had no appetite for creating medically frail parole for incarcerated people in Michigan who can no longer accomplish regular daily tasks such as feeding or [...]
The long haul: why long sentences hurt everyone in Michigan
Michigan has seen its prison population fall 23 percent since 2006, when we recorded the largest number of incarcerated people in our state at 51,515. That’s the good news. However, this decline has been offset [...]
How short stays have a lasting impact on Michigan prison policy
Here’s a paradox: Michigan is known around the country for having the one of the longest prison sentences in the country, but even so, more than seven out of every 10 people committed to prison [...]
Fewer people are going to prison — here’s why
We know by now that Michigan’s prison population is falling. From the high of 51,515 people reached in 2006, our state’s prison population has fallen 23 percent to 39,666 as of the end of 2017. [...]
Statistics tell the stories
The Michigan Department of Corrections released its 2017 Statistical Report on Jan. 23, 2019. It releases statistical reports annually, and each year they contain hundreds of pages of facts, figures, charts and tables that help [...]
Let’s work together
The political landscape has been noisy lately. If you read the news or watch it on television, it would be easy to think that there’s no room for politicians on the left and right to [...]
Court sentences: fair and equal?
If you are ever standing before a judge to be sentenced in Michigan the least you’d hope for is a fair and impartial hearing. You’d never want a judge to decide whether to send you [...]
House committees: worth a second look
The Michigan House of Representatives has a new speaker this session, Rep. Lee Chatfield (R-Levering), and he has announced that the House committee process will work slightly differently this session than it has in previous [...]