This is the third in a series of blogs related to understanding who is incarcerated in Michigan prisons, why they are incarcerated, and for how long. The first post looked at some of the demographics of our prison population. In the second blog, which took a look changing size of our prison population, we ended [...]
Image is from the Sentencing Project’s Still Life report:https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/still-life-americas-increasing-use-life-long-term-sentences/ Four members of the Safe & Just Michigan team attended the two-day convening on Ending Perpetual Punishment in Detroit on July 12-13. The aim was to bring together representatives from organizations who are actively trying to reduce life and long sentences, to discuss what [...]
Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, but that doesn’t mean people don’t die in our state’s prisons. In 2017 alone, 106 people died while they were incarcerated in Michigan, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections’ Statistical Report. Many of them were receiving treatment for medical conditions. Things like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and the advanced [...]
Just a few months ago, it appeared as though legislators had no appetite for creating medically frail parole for incarcerated people in Michigan who can no longer accomplish regular daily tasks such as feeding or dressing themselves. After being diluted last year, the medically frail parole proposal finally made it out of the Michigan House [...]
Michigan has seen its prison population fall 23 percent since 2006, when we recorded the largest number of incarcerated people in our state at 51,515. That’s the good news. However, this decline has been offset by a steady increase in the length of stay. Michigan’s prison system has one of the longest average prison sentences [...]
On Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, John Cooper, our associate director of policy & research, traveled to Lakeland Correctional Facility to present at the monthly meeting of Chapter #1013 of the National Lifers of America organization (“NLA”). NLA is a statewide prisoner-based organization with an active membership in many prisons in Michigan. Its purpose is to [...]
Solving the problem of how to get more people to get on board with criminal justice reform was the theme of the night at Safe & Just Michigan’s Annual Membership Meeting and dinner, held Thursday, Oct. 18 at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing. The event, attended by nearly 200 people, featured speakers Leon El-Alamin from [...]
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 [...]
On May 2, Barbara Levine, CAPPS associate director, and John Cooper, CAPPS policy director, testified before House of Representatives Law and Justice Committee, at the invitation of the chair, Rep. Kesto (R – District 39). Cooper identified the policies that fueled Michigan’s prison growth over recent decades. We currently incarcerate about 41,000 individuals at a [...]
The Sentencing Project recently put out a new report on the ever-increasing length of time served by parolable lifers, even when they get released. Click here for the report: Delaying a Second Chance: The Declining Prospects for Parole on Life Sentences . The report surveys practices in many states, including Michigan, and contains recommendations for:-- reducing the minimum number [...]