At MI-CEMI, we know that robust peer-led and volunteer programming inside Michigan prisons is essential for meaningful rehabilitation and successful community reentry. To continue strengthening and expanding these critical programs, we’re bringing together providers, advocates, and individuals with direct programming experience for our quarterly Prison Programming Providers Table.
Join us virtually on Tuesday, August 5th, from 12:00–1:30 PM ET on Zoom for an interactive discussion about the current landscape of programming inside Michigan’s correctional facilities.
In this session, we’ll introduce our newly developed statewide map of existing programs, highlighting where programming thrives and where gaps remain. Following this overview, participants will break into role-specific small groups—Providers, Advocates, and Program-Experienced individuals—to collectively examine assets, barriers, and opportunities for growth.
As always, we’ll create space to report back as a full group and identify actionable next steps for expanding high-quality programming statewide.
A package of resentencing legislation—House Bills 4506, 4507, and 4508, introduced by Rep. Sarah Lightner—is moving forward in the Michigan House after a Judiciary Committee vote on June 25. The bills would establish harsh new sentencing minimums in response to recent Michigan Supreme Court rulings that prohibited mandatory life without parole sentences for individuals who were 19 or 20 years old at the time of their offense.
Rather than honoring the Court’s direction for meaningful resentencing, the bills propose:
Minimum sentences between 35 and 50 years
Maximum sentences of at least 80 years
Mandatory consecutive sentences for related offenses
MI-CEMI opposes these bills, which would sharply restrict judicial discretion and entrench extreme sentencing practices that have already been found unconstitutional by the state’s highest court.
The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) is finalizing a new statewide contract that will govern how people in prison make phone calls, send messages, participate in video visits, and access tablets.
This decision will shape how thousands of people stay connected to loved ones—and MI-CEMI is urging the state to get it right.
Alongside several advocacy partners, MI-CEMI submitted a formal memo responding to the current Request for Services (RFS‑171‑250000002079‑4). Our message was clear: communication systems must be affordable, accessible, and designed to serve—not exploit—incarcerated people and their families.
Five years after the murder of George Floyd, we’re finally seeing real momentum for meaningful policing reform in Michigan.
A bipartisan group of state senators has introduced the Police Practices Standardization, Transparency, and Trust (S.T.A.T.) package, a set of eleven bills shaped by years of community advocacy to increase transparency, accountability, and public trust in policing.
The S.T.A.T. package (Senate Bills 333–343) would:
Standardize use-of-force policies across the state (SB 333)
Require training in de-escalation, crisis response, and implicit bias (SB 334)
Mandate a duty to intervene to prevent excessive force (SB 335)
Limit no-knock warrants and clarify when they can be used (SB 336)
The Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration (MI-CEMI), which serves over 115 member organizations working to improve public safety and end mass incarceration, established the following policy priorities for 2025–2026. These priorities were shaped through deep collaboration among justice-impacted leaders and organizations across the state, reflecting a range of political perspectives, lived experiences, and roles in the criminal legal sector. Michigan’s criminal legal system demands sweeping change. But experience has shown that without clear focus, urgent efforts can lose power. By aligning around these shared priorities, our movement aims to concentrate its energy where we can make the greatest impact and build momentum for broader transformation.
Prevent Incarceration and Improving Public Safety
Provide Youth Defense [PRIORITY]: Expand Michigan Indigent Defense Commission to include defense services for youth in the juvenile justice system.
Establish Police Improvement Policies [PRIORITY]: Establish statewide policies to improve police practices such as strengthening training requirements, specifying required use of force elements, limiting the use of no-knock warrants, and tracking separation records.
Reduce Pretrial Detention: Implement a court date notification program through SCAO to improve attendance at court dates, reduce use of bench warrants, reduce pretrial detention. Work with local units of government to pilot additional policies to reduce use of wealth-based detention.
Protect Restorative Justice: Establish state policies to increase statewide access to restorative justice processes in court and community-based settings by protecting the privacy of the content of restorative justice proceedings.
Fair Youth Interrogation: Prohibit the use of deceptive interrogation practices against minors.
