This blog is the first in a series of three comparing the results of the Wayne County Jail report and the findings of the Joint Task Force. This blog focuses on what offenses people booked into jail for. In May 2020, the Vera Institute of Justice released a report on the practices of the Wayne [...]
The recommendations of the Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration are getting ready to officially start their move through the Michigan Legislature next week. When people ask me about the best ways to address over-incarceration I usually with the question: “Do you mean in jails or in prisons?” Jails house people who are [...]
The Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration identified the suspension of driver’s licenses for reasons that have nothing to do with unsafe driving as one of the major drivers in Michigan’s jail growth over the past few decades. In 2018, nearly 358,000 people lost their driver’s license for reasons that had nothing [...]
The final report of the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration found that most arrests in Michigan are for misdemeanors that harmed no one. Research shows police squander many hours and large amounts of taxpayer dollars to arrest, book and jail people for these minor offenses. For that reason, the task force recommended [...]
It has been a difficult few weeks full of changes and challenges for all of us, We want to send our best wishes to you, your friends, and to your family during these trying times. One helpful things to do during a crisis is to keep connected and maintain a sense purpose. That’s why we’re [...]
(This is the second post in a series Safe & Just Michigan is running on Michigan’s habitual offender laws. Other posts include: Can my sentence be used against me and more to be written as the series continues.) At Safe & Just Michigan, we generally use human-centered language. However, to keep technical concepts clear in [...]
I walked into my first Day of Empathy event nearly four years ago feeling terrified, socially averse and embarrassed. I was ashamed and had been shamed. I had only recently completed my three years of incarceration and a bit more than two years of parole and probation. The memory of being paraded, in a bright [...]
When someone is sentenced to prison, they aren’t the only one doing hard time. The people who wait for them at home — their friends, their family, their loved ones — also experience the hardships of incarceration. That’s the message behind the film “Locked Out,” created through the hard work of Citizens for Prison Reform [...]
(This is the first post in a series Safe & Just Michigan is running on Michigan’s habitual offender laws.) (At Safe & Just Michigan, we generally use human-centered language. However, to keep technical concepts clear in this blog post, we will adhere to legal terminology, which is unfortunately not human-centered.) A new senate bill package [...]
In January 2020, the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration issued a list of 18 legislative action items that — if enacted — could revolutionize Michigan’s county jails and the lives of the people who come into contact with them. The task force drafted their recommendations after holding six meetings across Michigan. [...]