Life Beyond Life: Stories of Hope and Healing (Detroit)

Life Beyond Life: Stories of Hope and Healing. Spend an evening with former juvenile lifers to learn more in their own words. Hosted by Safe & Just Michigan.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles is unconstitutional, and in 2016, the court made that ruling retroactive. Since then, hundreds of former juvenile lifers in Michigan have returned home. Overwhelmingly, they have become productive, contributing members of their communities, becoming parents, social workers, entrepreneurs and more. You can hear several of their stories through our “Life Beyond Life” video storytelling project HERE <https://tracking.etapestry.com/t/48539259/1509407654/107049799/0/122098/?x=bc4de847>.

Safe & Just Michigan favors legislation that would end the possibility of JLWOP sentencing and codify the recent state Supreme Court rulings into law. Current legislation before the House fails to do that. House Bills 4506-8 do ban mandatory life sentences for juveniles — as the U.S. Supreme Court ordered in 2012 — but replaces them with sentences with a minimum of 35-50 years and maximum of 80 years. For a 20-year-old facing sentencing, an 80-year sentence is essentially the same as life.

In contrast, the bills we supported last year initially had a minimum sentence of 10 years, but was later amended to 20 years — still less than the minimum of 35-50 years in the current proposal.

This month we are hosting two “Life Beyond Life: Stories of Hope and Healing” events that will be presented in Lansing on Oct. 16 and Detroit on Oct. 21. These events bring together a panel of former juvenile lifers, selections from our “Life Beyond Life” storytelling project and questions from the audience.

The details for the Detroit event are as follows:

Detroit: Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Bernath Auditorium at Wayne State University’s Adamany Graduate Library featuring panelists Jose Burgos, Machelle Pearson and Patrick Kinney. Burgos is also a board member at SJM and a policy advocate for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. Doors open at 6 p.m. Register for this event HERE <https://tracking.etapestry.com/t/48539259/1509407654/107049798/0/122098/?x=a6e4f96c>.

We hope we will see you at one of the upcoming “Life Beyond Life: Stories of hope and healing” in October. We encourage you to bring a friend or colleague to these events to help get the word out.