Happy Holidays!
We at MJA have heard many folks lament that, ‘The legislators have been talking about bringing back Good Time for years but nothing has ever happened.’ In fact, even if the legislators have been ‘… talking about bringing back Good Time …’ in the past, this year is unlike any other year since Truth In Sentencing (TIS) laws were put into place more than 20 years ago.
This year on Nov. 9th, something happened that has never happened before. HB4670 was voted out of committee and onto the House floor. The next step for that bill is a vote by the entire Michigan House of Representatives. Now, we cannot tell you when the house will hold their vote but we can tell you that no other bill related to reversing TIS has made it this far. None!! This tells us that the people of the state are making enough noise that our lawmakers are finally listening and getting the message. Many lawmakers are now challenging the way things have been done for the past 20 years. 42 lawmakers (32 Representatives and 10 Senators) are in favor of some kind of sentence reduction credit policy becoming law. We hope you understand this important progress and that it brightens your day & brings joy to your heart.
Please keep calling, writing, emailing, texting and meeting with your state lawmakers and get your friends and family to do the same. Every little bit helps and together each little bit becomes bigger and bigger! Because our bill is still in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, we are specifically asking you and your friends and families to ask Senator Roger Victory to have a hearing on SB649. We have published the names of the committee members before and here they are again:
Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee Members
Senator Roger Victory (Committee Chairman) (517) 373-6920
Senator Curtis VanderWall (Committee Vice-Chairman) (517) 373-1725
Senator Tom Barrett (517) 373-3447
Senator Ruth Johnson (517) 373-1636
Senator Jim Runestad (517) 373-1758
Senator Stephanie Chang
Senator Jeff Irwin
If you missed our Town Hall Meeting last weekend, please click the link below to hear more about the progress of our bill. Additionally, if you are looking for worthy organization to donate to this holiday season, please click the link below to donate to our cause!