The Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration (MI-CEMI) opposes construction of new prisons, jails, or immigration detention facilities in the state of Michigan and the reopening of shuttered prison facilities for incarceration or immigration detention. MI-CEMI supports efforts to improve conditions of confinement at prisons and detention facilities and prioritizes efforts to reduce the number of people detained or incarcerated as a key driver for improvements to conditions.
The state of Michigan is incarcerating far more people than is necessary and reasonable.
We are locking up people who are poor and cannot afford the cost of bail. We are locking up people who have mental health and/or substance abuse issues and need treatment we are not providing. We are locking up people who have aged out of criminal behavior. We are locking up people who are too frail to engage in criminal behavior. We are locking up people for whom we are unable to provide timely therapy. We are locking up people for whom we cannot provide medical and dental care. We are locking up people we cannot afford to properly feed.
The federal government is locking up people in immigration detention who have not committed serious crimes or any crimes in many cases. They are being locked up in facilities with inadequate sanitary facilities, inadequate food, inadequate space, and inadequate health care.
Since we cannot properly manage the current detained population, we should focus on reducing that population. Our detention facilities should house only those for whom we can provide needed treatment and programming and for whom we can provide adequate health care and food.
The post MI-CEMI Opposes New Prison, Jail, and Detention Center Construction in Michigan first appeared on Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration.