Sentencing

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|

2023 Mid-Year Legislative Status Update

The state Capitol is now in summer mode. Legislators are wrapping up work on their spring projects and getting ready to go back to their communities for their summer in-district work period, which means little action will be taking place in Lansing over the next few months. With that in mind, we thought we’d give [...]

2023-07-11T17:12:02-04:00July 11th, 2023|Categories: Blog, Jails, Juveniles, Lifers, Prison programs, Sentencing|

April brings Second Chances to Michigan

We use the phrase “second chances” so often in criminal justice reform work that it can sometimes sound like a buzzword. We urge employers to adopt second-chance hiring to give people with a criminal record a chance at a job. The federal Second Chance Act provides grants to nonprofits and agencies that work to reduce [...]

2023-03-30T15:36:36-04:00March 29th, 2023|Categories: Blog, Juveniles, Lifers, Parole, Reentry, Sentencing|

Meet Kenneth Nixon, our new Director of Community Outreach and Partnerships

It’s tragic that Kenneth Nixon’s false conviction cost him 16 years of freedom, but it’s fair to wonder, perhaps selfishly, what it cost everyone else. Since his 2021 release from prison, Kenneth has proven to be a skilled problem solver and coalition builder. As president of the Organization of the Exonerees, he has worked with [...]

2023-02-21T15:21:32-05:00February 21st, 2023|Categories: Blog, Courts, Crime survivors, Racial equity, Reentry, Sentencing|

Why Restoring Good Time is Good Policy

For most of its history, Michigan had a generous, progressive “good time” system that reduced a prisoner’s parole eligibility date for every month they did not receive a citation for misconduct. (See: Barbara Levine, Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, “10,000 Fewer Michigan Prisoners: Strategies to Reach the Goal” (June 2015) at pg. 76, [...]

2022-03-21T14:58:08-04:00March 21st, 2022|Categories: Blog, Lifers, Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), Reentry, Sentencing|

From prosecuted to working for the prosecutor’s office: A story of continuing transformation

Former juvenile lifer Edward Sanders starts work for Washtenaw County's Conviction Integrity & Expungement Unit (Safe & Just Michigan first interviewed Edward Sanders, a former juvenile lifer, in July 2018, after he had been released from prison for about a year. Since then, he has contacted us periodically to keep us up-to-date on [...]

2021-07-09T01:47:55-04:00July 8th, 2021|Categories: Blog, Courts, Juveniles, Lifers, Racial equity, Reentry, Sentencing, Trauma|