Reform is Coming to the Michigan Sentencing Commission
Sentencing reform does not happen only through slogans or election cycles. It also happens through who gets a seat at…
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.
Incarceration and the Quiet Theft of Women’s Reproductive Rights
Losing liberty is one thing. Losing the ability to have a child because the state took your child-bearing years and…
Battling Depression after a Parent’s Incarceration: How to Rally and Thrive
Depression after a parent’s incarceration is not a character problem or a family weakness. It is what happens when children…
Colorado DNA Analyst Facing 500 Counts of Data Tampering
A forensic lab does not fail only when one analyst cheats. It fails when the system around that analyst rewards…
Parental Incarceration Is State-Funded Harm to Children
The prison sentence is imposed on one person. The damage is distributed across an entire household, and children absorb some…
Trump Pardons 1,500 January 6th Cases
The political headline is obvious. The systems question is harder: what happens when thousands of people and families get a…
What’s Up with Michigan’s Sentencing Guidelines Manual?
Michigan’s sentencing guidelines are supposed to create structure. The harder question is who is interpreting that structure, who is teaching…
Prosecutors Have Too Much Power—and They’re Measuring the Wrong Things
Prosecutors are measured like system expanders, then everyone acts surprised when they keep expanding the system. The published piece gets…
People v. Velasquez: Court of Appeals Rejects Policy-Based Sentencing Departure in Barry County
Sentencing errors don’t always show up as dramatic mistakes. Sometimes they show up as decisions that don’t hold together under…
Punishment Fails on Children but Is Still Used on Adults: Exploring the Paradox of Discipline and Justice
The systems we build don’t come out of nowhere. They reflect what we’ve already normalized. Mass incarceration is often discussed…
You must be logged in to post a comment.