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|

The Michigan Department of Corrections by the numbers

The Michigan Department of Corrections has released its 2019 Statistical Report, offering a glimpse into Michigan’s corrections system shortly before the COVID-19 crisis took hold and brought about some significant changes. Some of those changes are visible in a subsequent report to the Michigan Legislature in a January 2021 Budget Briefing document that detail how [...]

Bailing on Cash Bail

For those who don’t have money, they are stuck in jail, trying to fight their case and hold their lives together with a crazy glue made out of incapacitation, restricted access to a telephone, and the wreckage of whatever was left behind. - Joshua Hoe Getting arrested and going to jail turns your entire [...]

2021-02-25T13:27:53-05:00February 25th, 2021|Categories: Blog, Lifers, Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), Parole, Sentencing, Topics, Trauma|