Thirteen years ago, Nealmetria Loper came to a reckoning in her life. After living in a Detroit neighborhood that was troubled by violence and poverty, she decided she wanted better for her own children — and other children living in the city. Loper — one of two Safe & Just Michigan Community Outreach Fellows— already knew [...]
The year 2020 was a watershed for many people, including Safe & Just Michigan’s new intern Sonnet Yancey, who uses she/they pronouns. Yancey, who is finishing a bachelor’s degree in social work at Michigan State University, came to understand the depth of need for change during the tumultuous summer of 2020, as voices called for [...]
Something happened to Jazmine Wells on her way to becoming a prosecuting attorney: she visited a jail. Specifically, she visited jail as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan through her participation in a program called Project Community. Project Community is a service learning program housed within the University of Michigan’s sociology department that [...]
One of the most rewarding things about working for criminal justice reform is getting people interested in transforming our court and prison systems and watching the momentum for change build, both in Michigan and nationwide. So, when I got a call from Sean Wilkinson, a reporter and videographer from San Francisco who is representing the [...]
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 [...]
Now that the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration has started to meet, you will likely start to hear more about topics such as pay-to-stay, cash bail reform and jail diversion programs. The purpose of the task force is to draft recommendations that will guide the Legislature as it looks for ways [...]
Hakim Crampton is the statewide organizer for a national nonprofit organization, JustLeadershipUSA, that helps formerly incarcerated people find their voice and become strong advocates for criminal justice reform. Monica Jahner was recently appointed by the governor to Michigan’s Jail and Pre-Trial Task Force, where she will help draft recommendations on how our state can make [...]
Safe & Just Michigan Policy Analyst Josh Hoe recently attended a two-day training in Detroit along with several other SJM staffers. These are his impressions of the event, hosted by JustLeadershipUSA. On July 20-21, Just Leadership USA (JLUSA) hosted a two-day emerging leader training in Detroit for justice-impacted people. Detroit represents the epicenter of an [...]
Safe & Just Michigan is proud to announce that DeAnna R. Hoskins, the president and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA, will be our featured speaker at this year’s Annual Dinner Meeting. The event will take place on Thursday, Oct. 10, starting at 5:30 p.m, hosted at the Radisson Hotel Lansing at the Capitol. Under DeAnna’s guidance, JustLeadershipUSA [...]
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 was a 25-year-old young woman who had been in and out of prison on drug charges, and now needed to [...]