Juvenile lifers Trauma Summer Camp: healing reimagined. With the alarm ringing at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning, I am thinking to myself, "I still have to pack and load my truck and pick up Walter by 6:15 so we can be in Ann Arbor by 7.” Walter is a friend from the [...]
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 my first day on the job. I couldn’t help but think about how exactly I could engage the community during [...]
(Please note: the following blog post contains the reflections of formerly incarcerated people in their own words, and it covers material that is emotionally sensitive such as rape and gun violence.) Daniel Jones’ life changed forever when his parents separated when he was just a young boy. Up to then, he felt secure and [...]
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 Slate to the passage of Raise the Age, the formation of the Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration [...]
Every two years, at the end of a legislative session, the Legislature has a post-election “lame duck” session, where the election results are known, but the existing Legislature has several weeks of session remaining in their terms. The lame duck session tends to be chaotic — particularly when there is an impending change in control [...]
Edward Sanders was just 17 years old in 1975 when a judge told him he would never walk free again. Though he hadn’t pulled the trigger, he had been convicted as an accessory to a first-degree homicide in Michigan, one of four states that still requires 17-year-olds to be tried as adults in certain [...]
Only Michigan and four other states treat 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. Currently, a 17-year-old, who is legally too young to vote, marry, or join the military, can be convicted in adult court. There is little disagreement among stakeholders that raise the age is good for Michigan. However, uncertainty about the potential [...]