In these are trying and uncertain times, we at Safe & Just Michigan want you to know that we are working to limit the impact of COVID-19 on people in Michigan's jails and prisons, to keep the public up-to-date on what is being done, and to support advocacy for diversion and decarceration both during the [...]
(Please note: the following blog post contains the reflections of formerly incarcerated people in their own words, and it covers material that is emotionally sensitive such as rape and gun violence.) Daniel Jones’ life changed forever when his parents separated when he was just a young boy. Up to then, he felt secure and [...]
Mary Lynn Stevens always told me that her job as development director for Safe & Just Michigan was the capstone of her career. After all, it brought together many of the things she is most passionate about in her life: her thirst for justice, her love of connecting people to causes they care about and [...]
Each year, the Michigan Department of Corrections releases a factbook of statistics describing their department, the state prisons and the people who are incarcerated inside them. This year’s factbook, which looks at statistics from 2018, was recently released. Overall, the facts and figures point to continuing trends: Michigan’s prison population continues to fall, while our [...]
As 2019 winds down, we thought we’d take a moment to look back at a busy year for criminal justice reform in Michigan and take stock of all that’s happened. From the introduction of Clean Slate to the passage of Raise the Age, the formation of the Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration [...]
Every year in mid-November, thousands of criminologists from around the world gather in a large U.S. city for the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology (ASC). ASC is the primary professional association for criminologists and other academics that study crime. This year, the conference took place in San Francisco, and the theme was [...]
Last week, on October 10, Just Us Now and the National Lifers of America Inc. held a community day event at the state Capitol. The crowd was an eclectic mix of people who have served and been released from life or long sentences as well as their loved ones. Most in attendance wore shirts with [...]
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 [...]