MI-CEMI’s recent webinar, “How to Use Language Within Media to Shape Perception and Policy.” Featured a panel of experts providing hands-on learning experience that demonstrated how we can collectively use language to shift the narratives surrounding mass incarceration, as well as dispute myths and misconceptions.
MI-CEMI represents a broad spectrum of advocates pushing for change in the criminal legal system: from grassroots to grasstops, reform to abolition, and all across the state, our members have a wide range of perspectives and priorities.
Legislative priorities are still shaking out for 2023, and you can expect many of ideas that didn’t move forward last cycle to come back. Here are a few areas we see as emerging high priority policies from the MI-CEMI Steering Team Organizations.
Last week Governor Whitmer introduced her proposed FY2024 budget. It’s a big document, so we wanted to share with you some highlights as they relate to ending mass incarceration. Remember, this is just the governor’s proposal: the legislature will go through their own budget process, so the final budget will look different.
The following topics are in line with the MI-CEMI Founding Resolution, as well as important youth justice issues.
Note: There are a lot of legislative efforts to change Michigan’s criminal legal system, and it’s hard to keep track of everything that’s going on. That’s why one service MI-CEMI offers to our members is a legislative tracker (2021-2022 tracker, 2023-2024 tracker). If this information is useful to you, request to sign up for regular email updates by emailing mail@mi-cemi.org.
While the 2019-2020 legislative session was a very productive time for passing criminal legal system reform legislation such as Clean Slate, Clean Slate for Kids, and Sex Offender Registry Act Reform, we saw less action in the 2021-2022 legislative session. That said, many good ideas came forward, some did pass, and community voices helped limit the impact of harmful legislation.
Here are some highlights from last year. Please note that we began our bill tracker in 2022, so legislation that passed, was defeated, or stalled in 2021 may not appear in this summary.
The Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration (MI-CEMI) has prepared this official statement to share our position on the use of surveillance technology as a public safety tool in Michigan cities, including majority Black and Brown cities such as Detroit, Flint, Southfield, Grand Rapids, Pontiac, Ypsilanti Township, among other cities. MI-CEMI does not support the use of surveillance technology by police departments and recognizes that attempts to surveil communities with various technologies are counter to the complex work of our member organizations. MI-CEMI member organizations and individuals are committed to de-carcerating our current punishment systems, developing front-end preventative approaches that deflect and divert people from involvement in the criminal legal systems, and building community-based alternatives to these punishment systems that have deeply harmed Black and Brown communities.
