Michigan lawmakers finally based a budget. One that has left criminal justice reform advocates reeling, demonstrating a blatant lack of care for not just impacted people, but entire communities.
While we’re all still trying to get our arms around the impacts, advocates know that
Cutting Reentry Support: A Self-Inflicted Wound
Early yesterday morning, the State of Michigan voted to completely eliminate funding for proven reentry programs, especially one that had saved taxpayers nearly $2 million annually and empowered hundreds of participants and their families to break free from the criminal-legal cycle.
The program didn’t just save money; it created safer communities by helping people stabilize after incarceration.
Instead of investing in what works, lawmakers decided to dismantle a resource that was breaking the cycle of poverty and prison. Real people lost jobs overnight. Families who counted on that support are now left to navigate reentry alone — and we know what happens when that safety net disappears: more homelessness, more desperation, and higher recidivism.
This isn’t fiscal responsibility. It’s political cowardice dressed up as “budget decisions.”
What They Didn’t Touch: The Sentencing Commission
There is one noticeable item that didn’t get cut: the Michigan Sentencing Commission, the body with the power to meaningfully reform sentencing policy. Real change could come from this commission if it weren’t stifled by judicial arrogance and political apathy. But as long as judges like Michael Schipper act as though they are above the law, and lawmakers refuse to hold them accountable, the commission’s potential remains wasted.
Michigan has a tool that could drive real change, a tool to review and reform sentencing practices that fuel mass incarceration and inequity. But keeping that commission funded while gutting the programs that help people survive those sentences says everything about this legislature’s priorities: preserve the system, ignore the people harmed by it.
The Cycle Lawmarkers are Choosing
The Michigan legislature keeps proving it would rather:
- Protect donors and political optics than invest in real solutions.
- Cut programs that work rather than own its failed policies that hurt communities in the first place.
- Completely disregard measures that work while keeping the sentencing status quo intact.
It’s a cycle of poverty, punishment, and pain, and it’s created and maintained by those in power.
A Pattern of Policy Cruelty
This is absolutely unacceptable and Michigan voters must take note. It paints a portrait of consistent apathy; one that demonstrates the way lawmakers treat the “least” of us.
They were willing to cut free lunches for kids until the public outcry became too loud to ignore. And now they have gutted reentry programs; the very programs that give people leaving prison a chance to rebuild their lives, reunite with their families, and stop the cycle of incarceration.
What they’re forgetting, is that most people in prisons will come home and they will be able to vote. And they will remember this treatment at the polls.
Michiganders Are Paying Attention
I am increasingly disappointed to be a Michigander. Humanity does not appear to live here right now. But voters are not powerless. We can:
- Track campaign money: Follow the PACs and lobbyists behind these decisions.
- Write to your lawmakers: professionally point out the policies you disagree with and how they’re harming Michigan.
- Hold judges accountable: Demand transparency from the bench, especially from those who believe they’re untouchable.
- Vote with knowledge: Share tools like TransparencyUSA, demand debates on sentencing reform, and elect people who understand public safety isn’t built by punishment alone.
Michigan doesn’t lack solutions. It lacks the political courage to use them.
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