Michigan Justice Advocacy (MJA) believes that the Safer Michigan Act is a promising piece of legislation to make positive progress toward addressing Michigan’s incarceration issues and therefore is adding its support to passage of the Act.
Comprised of House Bills 4670-5, the Safer Michigan Act is a forward-thinking package of bills that is a huge step in the right direction toward altering Michigan’s pattern of increased sentence lengths with no measurable benefit to reducing crime. More importantly, the Safer Michigan Act reflects an overall cultural shift in how our society wishes to address crime, punishment and rehabilitation.
Encouraging our incarcerated citizens to step into available programs and complete education and vocational training are key for the incarcerated population to successfully reintegrate into a society that often looks very different for many of the men, women and children returning to their communities. The Safer Michigan Act is progressive when measured by our historical approaches to this very issue.
We believe that our current shortcomings in incarceration practices are in need of policies which also provide currently incarcerated Michigan citizens with meaningful incentives to achieve the same opportunities and to have those achievements recognized the same as those who would be included in the current iteration of the Safer Michigan Act. The MDOC lacks the resources to provide educational and vocational programs for all of the incarcerated people who might want to take advantage of them. These programs are often available only to incarcerated people who are close to their release date, which does not help increase good behavior from the beginning of a person’s sentence.
Therefore, Michigan Justice Advocacy recommends that the House introduce a parallel bill to Senate Bill 649 and include it in the Safer Michigan Act. SB 649 establishes parameters for a good behavior credit system that reduces sentence length by one month for every full month that an incarcerated person remains free of misconduct. Introduced by Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor), SB649 would be an enhancement to the Safer Michigan package because it would offer an incentive for all incarcerated people to adopt positive behaviors throughout their entire sentence. This ongoing positive reinforcement of good behavior makes the corrections environment safer for corrections staff and incarcerated people alike, and provides the opportunity for incarcerated people who exhibit rehabilitated behaviors to return home sooner to contribute to their families, their communities and to the Michigan workforce.
Michigan Justice Advocacy (mijustice.org) is a 503(c)(4) that was established in 2020. Its mission is to advocate for legislative changes in the area of Criminal Justice Reform via direct and grassroots lobbying.
I really think they should bring back good time my son is doing real good he is and has been doing programs will being in prison and has did His GED and is currently in college and was in the program training dogs paws . I miss my son I know he was wronged with the system it’s very broken.
When is the next hearing?
This bill needs to pass. Rehabilitation not punishment. These inmates deserve a reason to hope. There are only 4 states without good time and Michigan is one of them. You have to give incentive to people to do their best while they are inside and teach them so they can be productive on the outside. No matter what they did, these are human beings and deserve the change to change themselves and their lives. SUPPORT THIS BILL!
Yes please give a hearing and I think this will help out prisoners. Cause the Federal prison all ways help the incarceration people out with new law to release them . Good time back , plus I’m a taxpayer as well use are money for what we ask for . We vote you’ll in and you promise to hear and help out .