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Looking back to 2022: What happened with legislation on mass incarceration in Michigan?
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.
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MI-CEMI Statement on Police Surveillance Technology
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.
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2022 Michigan Reentry Convening
The 2022 Michigan Reentry Convening on July 12 at the Lansing Community College West Campus brought together 130 formerly incarcerated people, nonprofit service providers, advocacy organizations, and government agencies to:
- Build shared understanding of the current state of reentry in Michigan and how we got here.
- Learn from peers instate and around the country.
- Develop a shared policy agenda to improve reentry in Michigan.
- Create structures and mechanisms for advancing a policy agenda.
- Build relationships among reentry advocates across the state.
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Voter Engagement Toolkit
The 2022 election is a great opportunity to educate voters and candidates about how they can help end mass incarceration and promote public safety.
MI-CEMI’s Voter Engagement Toolkit: Educating Voters and Candidates About Ending Mass Incarceration and Promoting Public Safety equips you with how-to resources, sample questions, and guidance for nonprofits to make it easy for you to organize candidate forums, voter guides, support voter turnout, engage candidates for public office, and build the movement to end mass incarceration.
Here’s a training on using the toolkit!
