Can Sentencing Be Predicted? How Data and AI Are Already Changing Criminal Justice
Predictive sentencing sounds clinical, efficient, maybe even neutral. But once punishment starts leaning on probability models, the court is no…
Rita Williams
Rita Williams is a Michigan-based judicial oversight analyst and founder of Clutch Justice, an investigative platform focused on court system accountability, sentencing integrity, and SCAO policy. Her work examines how courts, policies, and administrative systems operate in practice, with a focus on where process breaks down and harm is created. Drawing on lived experience and systems-level analysis, she writes to make legal structures more readable, expose institutional gaps, and advocate for reforms grounded in both evidence and human impact. Rita’s writing bridges legal analysis, institutional critique, and public education, with a consistent focus on accountability without losing sight of the people most affected by the justice system.
Why Michigan Courts Are Falling Behind on AI—and Why That Needs to Change
Courts are already hard enough to see through. Add artificial intelligence without public guardrails, and opacity starts looking like innovation….
Court of Appeals Intervenes—But Barry County Judge Defies Sentencing Law Again
Appellate intervention is supposed to mean correction. In Barry County, it keeps looking more like a suggestion the trial court…
Second Chances Mean Nothing Without First Chances
Tomorrow is April 1st, the kickoff to Second Chance Month. It is worth celebrating, but beneath the hopeful language lies…
When Your Spouse Is Incarcerated: How Prison Quietly Destroys Marriages
When your spouse goes to prison, the sentence doesn’t stay with one person. It moves into the house, the budget,…
Michigan’s Judicial Accountability Problem: Secrecy, Misconduct, and a System That Protects Itself
Judicial Accountability Michigan’s judicial oversight body operates almost entirely in secret by constitutional design. In 2023 it received 542 grievances…
America Is Obsessed With Punishment—and It’s Making Us Less Safe
Key Points The Data Approximately two in five people in U.S. jails and prisons have a history of mental illness…
How We Criminalized Mental Illness—and Built a System That Profits From Suffering
We treat addiction like a disciplinary problem, then act surprised when it becomes a fatal one. Overdoses in prison are…
Twelve Overdoses in 24 Hours: Why Punishing Addiction in Prison Is Killing People
We treat addiction like a disciplinary problem, then act surprised when it becomes a fatal one. Overdoses in prison are…
Rethinking Incarceration: Why Prison Often Does More Harm Than Good
We measure incarceration in years. The damage is measured in everything else. Incarceration is often framed as a neutral tool…
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