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Mental health

Inside Voices – September 2024

Harsh sentences lead to ‘death by incarceration’ Over the last 40 years, Michigan has slowly but undeniably adopted “Death by Incarceration” (DBI), for prisoners serving life sentences. Prior to the sentencing reforms that began in the '80s, lifers were in one of two categories; those who were not getting out (about 25 percent), and those [...]

2024-09-28T03:27:04-04:00September 28th, 2024|Categories: Blog, Mental health, Sentencing, Trauma|

Hear these ‘Inside Voices’ – November 2023

Give people mental health help More than 50 percent of all people will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime, statistics say. That is a staggering statistic just in general, exacerbated when we consider “diagnosed” because many won’t be diagnosed. And without proper diagnosis, we begin to normalize [...]

2023-11-17T11:55:08-05:00November 17th, 2023|Categories: Blog, Courts, Elderly, Mental health, Sentencing|

Meet our new intern, Sonnet Yancey

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 [...]

2023-09-28T15:37:04-04:00September 28th, 2023|Categories: Blog, Community reinvestment, Mental health, Trauma|

Inside Voices – February 2023

Think twice before demanding Bernstein resignation There’s no mistaking Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein’s Freudian Slip objection to newly appointed Justice Kyra Bolden’s hiring ex-felon Pete Martel as one of her law clerks as racism, bigotry, or discrimination. But calls for Bernstein’s resignation are unwarranted because his outburst isn’t reflective of the “blind justice” [...]

A Day in the Life of a Community Engagement Specialist

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 [...]

Help for incarceration-related childhood trauma

We have long understood that incarceration of a parent can be traumatizing for a child — something we know from both peer-reviewed research and anecdotal evidence. Sadly, 1 in 10 children in Michigan have experienced having a parent in jail or prison, according to a 2016 study from the Annie E. Casey foundation. Children with [...]

2021-11-17T20:09:31-05:00November 17th, 2021|Categories: Blog, Juveniles, Mental health, Trauma|

Citizens for Prison Reform releases report on solitary confinement

In 2014, Sabrie Alexander suffered more than 100 seizures over the period of two days. She and her family already knew that she had a seizure disorder, so normally, they would have rushed her to a hospital to get immediate treatment. But 2014 wasn’t a normal time for Sabrie, who was then 27-years-old. She was [...]

Second Try at First-Offense Drunk Driving Expungement

2020 was a phenomenal year for criminal justice reform in Michigan, with everything from Clean Slate to the jails task force bills making their way into law. Amid all those victories, however, was one bitter disappointment: drunk driving expungement. In a promising development, however, it appears there may yet be hope for people hoping for [...]

2021-03-15T15:46:23-04:00February 23rd, 2021|Categories: Blog, Mental health, Sentencing, Substance abuse|