One of the foundational goals of MI-CEMI is to reinvest in the communities that have been harmed by mass incarceration.
This budget cycle, we pulled together the Investing in a Safer Michigan coalition to help fund proven, bipartisan strategies that make communities safer, level the playing field for underserved Michiganders, and provide for long-term fiscal responsibility by reducing the cost of incarceration.
Here are a few highlights:
Wins:
Funding Clean Slate Expungement Lookup Portal: One barrier to the full impact of the groundbreaking, bipartisan clean slate package is that people who benefit from it have a hard time seeing if their record is cleared. The coalition requested funds to develop an improved lookup portal. While not included in the state FY2025 budget, we were able to secure a commitment from the state to allocate unspent Clean Slate implementation funds for this project.
Expansion of SADO Direct Appeals: The State Appellate Defender Office represents approximately 30% of people appealing criminal convictions after trial. They do amazing work, and the coalition supported their push to expand their direct appeal work. This request was funded in the FY 2024-2025 budget.
Partially Funded: Sustainably Fund Community-Based Violence Intervention: Rather than relying only on police to respond after an incidence of violence, many communities across Michigan are using Community Violence Intervention models to prevent violence. But these programs need funds. We are grateful that the budget includes “$75 million to establish a Public Safety Trust Fund to provide cities, villages, and townships with additional resources for police services and to support community violence intervention efforts.” However, the state has still not developed a recurring funding source for this trust fund.
Partial Win: Eliminate Medical Copays for Incarcerated Patients: Prison medical copays deter people from seeking treatment, create debt that incarcerated people carry with them, and drain the resources of the loved ones who support them. Eliminating copays will require both legislation and funding, which we were not able to achieve this cycle. We did succeed, however, in securing “boilerplate” language that does require the Michigan Department of Corrections to review and reduce some fees, such as deposit and phone fees, incurred by incarcerated Michiganders and their families.
Funded: Expand Educational Access for Incarcerated Students: A core element of MI-CEMI’s mission is to expand programming access to people who are incarcerated. The recent restoration of Pell Grant scholarships to incarcerated adults helps achieve this goal, but it requires some funding and support. The MDOC budget includes $3.4 million to expand educational access at Thumb Correctional Facility across all education levels.
Improve Transparency and Accountability for Family Loss of Visits and the Use of Solitary Confinement (Boilerplate Language): Use of solitary confinement and denying the families of incarcerated people visitation rights are harmful practices that undermine the long-term goals of rehabilitation and successful reentry. The budget includes reporting requirements related to the loss of visitation privileges and use of solitary confinement (administrative segregation).
Unfinished Work:
Not Funded: Investing in Developing Youth Defense Standards: Last year, the legislature passed a series of bills to enact the recommendations of the bipartisan Michigan Task Force on Juvenile Justice Reform. But one key item of business remains: to “Expand the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC) to include development, oversight, and compliance with youth defense standards in local county defense systems.” We supported funds to develop these standards and continue to push the legislature to pass SB, but no funds were allocated in this budget.
Not Funded: Expanded State and Local County Convictions Integrity Units: Since 2018, Michigan has exonerated 71 people falsely imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. These exonerations reflect the hard work of innocence clinics, attorneys, and state and local conviction integrity units. We requested additional funding to establish county-level conviction integrity units, but this funding was not included in the state budget.
While we celebrate the significant strides made this budget cycle, our work is far from over. The wins we achieved underscore the power of collaboration and advocacy.
The ongoing challenges, including the need for sustainable funding for community-based violence intervention and the elimination of medical copays for incarcerated patients, remind us of the persistent efforts required to achieve progress.
We remain steadfast in our commitment to reinvesting in the communities harmed by mass incarceration and to pushing for reforms that ensure safety, fairness, and fiscal responsibility.