Maxine Willis, mother of Mario Willis who she believes was wrongfully convicted for the death of a Detroit fireman in 2008 cries after speaking at a Rally For Reform event on June 25, 2024 in the Michigan House Office building. | Anna Liz Nichols
Formerly incarcerated individuals, their loved ones and allies held a Rally For Reform event on Tuesday, calling on the Legislature to prioritize several criminal justice reform packages that have been untouched for months — which has shaken their trust in Michigan’s Democratic leadership.
Michigan lawmakers have sponsored criminal justice reform bills, but those who hold leadership positions are not “putting it all on the line” to fight to see them through, Shawanna Vaughn, told the Advance at the event in the House Office Building.
Vaughn founded Silent Cry, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for families whose lives are touched by incarceration. She said she hopes to see already introduced legislation move forward to bolster mental health screenings to look for signs of distress as a person is leaving incarceration, as well as a bill creating a board to implement standards of education and behavioral development for incarcerated juveniles. But those bills, House Bills 5390 and 5698, like several other bills advocates are backing, are still sitting in committee.
“The fact that we are bartering for bills to move is unacceptable. The fact that we are asking, pleading, for lawmakers to do the right thing … These are common-sense bills,” Vaughn said. “Education is not a privilege; it’s a human right. Mental health is not a privilege; it’s a human right. This is unacceptable. … How can you say, ‘I care about the plight of your community’ when you can’t even let bills get to the floor?”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and leaders in the state House and Senate have talked a lot about prioritizing mental health services and access since Democrats took the majority in the Legislature in 2023, Vaughn said. But incarcerated individuals and those rebuilding their lives after incarceration are being left out of the conversation.
“We can’t wait for them to vote. … Time’s up for waiting, waiting until next year, waiting to see who’s the next president,” Vaughn said. “It’s now or never and do or die. … What’s next is we run. We run for office.”
Several lawmakers had been scheduled to speak at the rally: Sens. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) and Mary Cavanagh (D-Redford Twp.) and Reps. Amos O’Neal (D-Saginaw), Joey Andrews (D-St. Joseph), Brenda Carter (D-Pontiac), Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck), Stephanie Young (D-Detroit), Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit), Kimberly Edwards (D-Eastpointe) and Jimmie Wilson Jr. (D-Ypsilanti). However, as the Legislature completed the state budget this week, none of them attended.
Vaughn and others spoke to attendees at the rally, advocating for different areas of legislative reform and calling for accountability for lawmakers to see those bills through.
One of the loudest calls to action was on Senate Bills 119–123 and House Bills 4160–4164, which would eliminate juvenile life sentencing without parole. The bills have sat in committees since March, when they were introduced
Another bill, Senate Bill 493 seeks to create more accountability for the Office of the Legislative Corrections Ombudsman and the Department of Corrections by expanding the ombudsman’s office and the ability for stakeholders to seek out investigations of injustices happening to prisoners. It passed the Senate unanimously in November of last year, but was referred to the House Government Operations Committee, where many bills go to die.
For 10 years, Genesee County Jail hasn’t allowed in-person visits for those incarcerated and that violation of human rights, that injustice, should never have been allowed to go on as long as it did, said Charmie Gholson of Citizens for Prison Reform. And although lawsuits have prompted Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson to announce this week that in-person visits will begin in July, the psychological damage to families has been done.
“Do you know why we have not let parents hold their children for 10 years in the Genesee County Jail? We did it for money and he [Swanson] said, ‘I’m going to reverse that decision.’ This is an election year, my friends,” Gholson said, adding that others may temporarily instate policies and rules to get votes, but to watch what happens after elections. “I’m guessing that you understand the reason why not only our Senate Bill 493, but armloads of criminal justice reform efforts are being held up by House Speaker [Joe] Tate’s office. … It’s an election year.”
In the case of Senate Bill 493, Republicans and Democrats alike supported the bill in the Senate, Gholson said, but now the bills sit in a House committee waiting to die.
“Gov. Whitmer put a hold on our bill through House Speaker Tate’s office. Like there’s probably 15 of those, of you folks in this room that have bills that are sitting in House Speaker Tate’s office right now that are held up by Gov. Whitmer,” Gholson said. “I call on Gov. Whitmer and I call on House Speaker Tate to release our bills and allow criminal justice reform to move forward.”
When asked what his response is to frustration from criminal justice reform advocates or other groups frustrated with the legislature’s speed on getting certain bills through, Tate said Thursday that hopefully frustrated parties can see Democratic leadership has gotten a lot of policy through in 18 months and they aren’t done yet.
“We still have a lot more work to do and that’s going to be important for us to continue to do,” Tate said.
A spokesperson for Whitmer declined to comment.
Senate Bills 321–325 and House Bills 4556–4560 aim to implement second look sentencing. The legislation would allow for the reconsideration of sentences for eligible incarcerated individuals having served at least 10 years of a sentence after conviction. They could petition for a reduction in sentence with the consent of the appropriate prosecuting attorney who would consult with any victims of the offense. The bills have sat in committees since May 2023, when they were introduced.
Legislation to allow individuals to get out of incarceration sooner and be with their families helps people repair their lives, be surrounded with support and not reoffend, said Tore Price of the Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration.
Price told attendees that in his life he has spent a total of 17 years in prison, most recently for armed robbery, coming home in February 2023.
“When I left, I had a 2-year-old son. … It was the visits that I had with my son that gave me the hope that I needed,” Price said. “That connection with my son gave me the hope that I needed to look for other classes or look for other programs to help put me in a position so when I came home … I can be successful.”
Getting people out of incarceration sooner, when their family is still around, gives people the connections they need to rebuild their lives and be productive in society, Price said. They have to have something to work toward.
Putting people in prison is expensive and separating families is expensive, said Marcus Kelley, a criminal justice reform advocate and formerly incarcerated individual. State funding would be better spent on youth programming to divert from crime than towards incarceration.
“Gretchen Whitmer, that is who we need to be talking to. Why don’t you want to pass any criminal justice reform bills? Why?” Kelley said. “They’d rather destroy a school. That’s why these children right here have got to do a fish fry to raise money for jerseys and the travel and dance competitions and stuff, but they can’t get money from our government to do that because they would rather pay money to incarcerate us.”
Several far-reaching criminal justice reforms have been signed by Whitmer since she took office in 2019, both under Republican- and Democratic-controlled legislatures.
In 2019, Whitmer signed the “Raise the Age” bill package which changed the definition of an adult in the criminal justice system from 17 to 18, which ended the automatic prosecution of 17-year-olds as adults and allows 17-year-olds to go to juvenile rehabilitation facilities rather than adult prisons. Michigan had been in an extreme minority of states that considered 17-year-olds adults in its criminal justice system.
In 2020, the “Clean Slate” package was signed into law which has since wiped clean more than 1 million criminal records with years old eligible convictions. The expungements have been heralded as a bipartisan success that opens doors for those who made mistakes in the past to go to school, participate in the workforce, find good housing and build into the state.
Kelley encouraged the crowd to look beyond Tate or other lawmakers of color who are more likely to be blamed for why criminal justice reform doesn’t move forward. Instead, he encouraged individuals involved with incarceration reform to run for office at the highest level, arguing that President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are not adequate options.
“Master Biden or Master Trump; I didn’t ask for that system. It was forced on us. But now we have to use that system to get free,” Kelley said.
Democrats talk about criminal justice reform, but Biden has never done people of color any good, James “JaMo” Thomas of Nation Outside said, and it’s time to stop believing the promises of the Democratic and Republican Party without seeing results.
“At some point, we have to fall out of love with the Democratic Party,” Thomas said. “The Democratic hold in the House, the Senate, the governor, the attorney general, the state police, they run everything in a state. They have not cared, not one s–t, for criminal justice reform.”
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