Barry County’s 99.9% Conviction Rate Isn’t a Success Story
How does Barry County, Michigan achieve a near-perfect criminal conviction rate? The answer has less to do with the strength…
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.
Rita Williams | The Classical School of Criminological Theory
Fresh Ideas Series The Classical School of criminology argues that law must achieve balance between fairness and punishment — that…
Michigan State Police Wayland Post Exposed: The Hidden Scandal of Misconduct Cover-Ups
A few weeks ago, I submitted a FOIA Request to understand where a turn-in arrangement went wrong. Except there’s one…
Crowdsourcing Justice: How “The New Irregulars” Are Exposing Systemic Corruption
Fresh Ideas Series When Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes, the great detective didn’t work alone. He had the Baker…
The Case for Three Strikes Law Reform: Rethinking Mandatory Sentencing | Rita Williams
Fresh Ideas Series In 2021, while completing master’s coursework in Criminal Justice at Purdue University Global, I examined the rise…
How I Found Comfort and Kinship in Lockwood and Co.
#ReadWithClutch Shortly after my husband’s unexpected wrongful imprisonment, I was grieving. The sudden incarceration of a loved one is like…
A Barry County Case Study: Small-Town Networks, Evidence Questions, and the Power of Plea Bargains
Editorial Scope Note This article shares information about a Barry County criminal case while protecting the identities of several private…
Court System Subcomponents Around the World: How Justice Systems Compare and Contrast
Fresh Ideas Series Within the criminal justice system, there are three primary subcomponents acting as checks and balances in the…
Rita Williams | Why Attorneys Add a “Barry County Surcharge”
When a county court system becomes so difficult to navigate that attorneys start adding a surcharge just for having to…
Rita Williams | Why Do Judges and Prosecutors Get Away With Unethical Behavior?
When considering unethical judges, my first major run-in was Judge Michael Schipper’s courtroom. He bullies, threatens, and has a strong…
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