JLWOP bills we can't support get hearing

Earlier this month, the Michigan House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on House Bills 4506-08. These bills are intended to respond to recent rulings from the Michigan Supreme Court regarding youthful offenders who have been convicted of the most serious crimes. However, we don't believe these bills live up to the spirit of the recent court rulings.

Over the past few years, the Michigan Supreme Court has refined how our state should approach sentencing when young people, aged 18-21, are convicted of serious offenses and might face a life sentence. The stage was set in 2012 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal constitution prohibits mandatory life sentences for people under the age of 18.

More recent Michigan Supreme Court rulings go beyond that. In 2024, the state court extended the ban on mandatory life sentences to people under the age of 19; earlier this year, that was further extended to youth under the age of 21. It's important to note, however, that these rulings affects only mandatory life sentences — a judge can still use discretion to impose a life sentence if a case warrants it.

While we want to see the Michigan Supreme Court rulings codified, we disagree with these bills. First, we want to see juvenile life without parole entirely removed as a sentencing option. Second, we believe that resentencing should allow for meaningful second chances.

We believe that the bills currently before the Legislature recognize the state court's rulings, but don’t match the intent of the court. While the bills ban mandatory life sentences, they replace those sentences with the possibility of a sentence with a minimum of 35-50 years and maximum of 80 years. Michigan has no Good Time policy and requires the full minimum sentence to be served before parole is even possible. For a 20-year-old facing sentencing, an 80-year sentence is essentially the same as life.

It's also worth pointing HBs 4506-08 allow for much stricter sentencing than is currently allowed. The current JLWOP resentencing law allows for sentences from 25-60 years. In contrast, the bills we supported last year initially had a minimum sentence of 10 years, but that was later amended to 20 years.

We continue to see a need for legislation that will write the Michigan Supreme Court rulings into law, but we disagree that creating 35-80 year sentences for young people do that. We will continue to work on the matter of juvenile life without parole until that sentence is off the table in our state.

Keeping the police accountable

Senate Bills 333-343 were recently introduced to the Michigan Senate with the intent of improving police accountability and oversight. These bills make common-sense changes to how police officers handle interactions with the community and prevent the use of excessive force. Crafted through extensive work with community stakeholders and law enforcement, these common-sense reforms would ensure Michigan remains a leader in advancing policies that enhance public safety and uphold justice for all.

Some of the reforms include limiting the use of no-knock warrants, requiring police officers to intervene when they see the use of excessive force, mandates training in de-escalation techniques and requiring the inclusion of disciplinary investigations and processes against an officer in their separation record.

Safe & Just Michigan supports these bills, which received a hearing before the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on June 26. The committee fielded testimony, which was largely supportive of the bills. However, some suggestions to improve language in the bills were also given. For instance, the Michigan ACLU pointed out that one of the bills specified actions to be taken if an injury was serious and permanent, but a broken bone could be both serious and temporary.

No vote was taken at the end of the hearing, which had to quickly conclude so that senators could return to session on the Senate Floor. Safe & Just Michigan will keep you on top of the progress of these bills in the Legislature.

Help amplify Inside Voices

Inside Voices is a written by justice-involved people currently incarcerated in Michigan prisons that is published in our hardcopy newsletter. While space in the printed newsletter is limited, we are able to post more of them online for everyone to read. If you would like to encourage someone who is incarcerated to submit a letter, please tell them they can send a letter of 300 words or less on criminal justice reform, pending legislation, re-entry or related topics to Inside Voices, c/o Safe & Just Michigan, 119 Pere Marquette Drive, Suite 2A, Lansing, MI 48912. To learn more, visit us at www.safeandjustmi.org. If you would like to join our efforts, email us at info@safeandjustmi.org or sign up for our newsletter at bit.ly/sjmsignup.

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