LANSING — State legislators, formerly incarcerated people and advocates came together March 22 for the 2022 Day of Empathy at the Michigan State Capitol to talk about some of pressing criminal justice reform issues, including the need for bail reform, a proposal to end juvenile life without parole sentencing, voting rights for formerly incarcerated people and specific concerns facing women at the Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility.
The Day of Empathy, sponsored nationally by Dream Corps Justice and hosted at the state-level by Safe & Just Michigan, is a day to inform people about the need for criminal justice reform while
highlighting the humanity of people who have been involved with the criminal justice system.
“The last few years have brought changes that opened up opportunities to people with old criminal records, giving them chances at good jobs and safe housing that they had been shut out of for decades,” said Safe & Just Michigan Executive Director John S. Cooper. “But there is still a lot of work to be done. We are still sending juveniles to prison for life and telling them there’s no way they will ever come home, and legally innocent people are losing their liberty and livelihoods because they can’t afford to pay bail. We need to do more work to make our justice system fair to all and our communities safe for everyone.”
Legislation is currently pending for several issues, including laws to ban the practice of sentencing juveniles to life without sentencing (Senate Bills 848-851) and a proposal to significantly reform cash bail (House Bills 5436-5443). Both sets of bills are awaiting their first hearings in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety and the House Judiciary Committee, respectively.
The Day of Empathy offered four discussion panels.
Co-sponsors were: AFSC - Michigan Criminal Justice Program, A.R.R.O., Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, the Carceral State Project, Citizens for Prison Reform, Friends of Restorative Justice, Michigan Center for Youth Justice, Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration, Michigan Faith in Action, Nation Outside and Prison Creative Arts Project.
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