Disappointing News Should Not Derail Rehabilitative Goals

In the last week or two, the Michigan Prisoner Rehabiliation Credit Act suffered a fatal end--for now. Because the organizers were not able to collect enough signatures (probably largely due to the coronavirus shutdown), the Act will not be on the ballot this fall. This is very disappointing news to prisoners and their loved ones who had hoped for earlier release dates.  Rumors of good time bills have been circulating for many more years than I have been in prison. Decades of rumors have yielded no good time or disciplinary credit legislation. The MPRCA was the closest we have seen to a potential change to sentence terms in Michigan. However, prison reform is not dead. Just last year one Michigan legislator introduced a good time bill in the House (which went nowhere), and he has indicated that he may do so again.  The time is ripe for Michigan to pass legislation to reduce prison sentences. With one of the longest average prison sentences in the United States, and with the state desperately short on funding, offering prisoners an opportunity to earn time off their sentences through good, responsible behavior, as well as proactive educational involvement just makes good sense. Longer prison sentences do not make communities safer. Rehabilatative programming does.  For those who have loved ones in prison, even though Michigan is unlikely to enact good time or rehabilitation credits this year, it is imperative that you encourage your incarcerated loved ones to work diligently to rehabilitate themselves. Possibly earning time off one's sentence is a nice bonus, if that ever happens, but the more important benefit is changing one's heart and mind. Leaving prison, no longer a danger to one's community, is a gift prisoners can give to those they have harmed. It shouldn't take a good time credit bill to cause us to put in the work of rehabilitation.  I will continue to hold out hope that Michigan will soon shift from a retributitve mindset to a rehabilitative and restorative mindset. And in the meantime, I'll continue to advocate for prisoners to adopt restorative justice attitudes and practices: crime harms relationships, these harm create obligations to victims and communities, and our central obligation is to make right those harms. Cultivating these attitudes and practices is, perhaps, the best way offenders can show their sincerity and change of heart.