When it comes to Michigan’s criminal legal system, the time is now for massive change. The senseless, horrific death of George Floyd, captured in gruesome detail on video, has sparked protests against police racism and abuse throughout the United States. 

Finally, a broad cross section of America is saying enough is enough as people of all races are taking to the streets, day after day, to demand justice. It is a heartening sight that gives us all hope that a more just country is within reach.  

Here in Michigan, we’re in the midst of an incarceration crisis that is tearing apart families, exacerbating racial injustice, and costing the state billions–while at the same time failing to improve public safety.  

But fundamentally changing policing is only part of the equation. Also needed is a spotlight on local prosecutors, who wield immense amounts of power in our criminal legal system. They are key in helping bring this crisis to an end. 

 The ACLU of Michigan, through its Campaign for Smart Justice, is ready to flip the switch on that spotlight, focusing attention on the people campaigning to be elected prosecutors in upcoming races across the state. To that end, we’ve launched a statewide prosecutorial accountability campaign, “The Power of Prosecutors” ahead of the 2020 elections. The mission of the campaign is to advance a vision for a fair and just criminal legal system that strives to end mass incarceration and eliminate racial disparities. To achieve this goal, the campaign is educating Michigan voters across the state about the power thecounty prosecutor has in their community and where they stand on key issues, including police accountability, racial justice, and transparency.  

Why are we doing that? 

Ultimately, if change is to occur, it must come through you, the public. To make a sound decision when casting a ballot, voters need as much information about the candidates and their positions as possible.The ACLU is providing that information. We’ve sent surveys to all 110 candidates running to become prosecutors in upcoming elections, including the 2020 election, across the state. The candidate responses are posted online at smartjusticeMI.org so that voters can discern which candidates support crucial reforms, and how they plan to implement them if elected. 

The good news is that, based on survey results, a significant majority of Michiganders are ready to move past traditional “tough-on-crime” prosecutors and embrace people who bring a more enlightened and progressive ethic to the job. An April 2020 poll conducted by Change Research and the ACLU of Michigan shows that voters statewide overwhelmingly support county prosecutor candidates who will confront and dismantle racial disparities in Michigan’s criminal legal system and end mass incarceration. 

The current system is clearly broken. Michigan’s incarceration skyrocketed between 1980 and 2016, growing by 172 percent. Even as crime rates have fallen, more and more people – disproportionately people of color – continue to get locked up. Michigan must do better. As a matter of fact, we can’t afford to continue down this path. The Michigan Department of Corrections spent more than $2 billion in 2016 on corrections costs. Locally, Michigan taxpayers spent $478 million on county jails, ensnaring thousands of people who likely are not a threat to society, wasting precious dollars that could be used on crime prevention, education, and mental health services. 

That has to change, and prosecutors are key to making it happen. In fact, we are already seeing it occur elsewhere in America. In cities such as Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago and Seattle, a new wave of reform-minded county and district attorneys have been put in office by voters who are demanding that incarceration be drastically reduced and structural frameworks be created to tackle racism in the criminal justice system 

Prosecutors can and should lead the way to meaningfully reduce Michigan’s jail and prison population as well. This requires a well-planned, intentional, and aggressive effort to ensure we are electing people to the position who share the values held by the vast majority of Michiganders who are demanding real justice now. 

Please join us in making that happen. You can start becoming involved now by going to our Prosecutor Accountability website to learn the positions of candidates in your county. If there are candidates you are interested in but haven’t replied, contact them and let them know if they want any chance of getting your vote, the first thing they need to do is respond and make it clear where they stand on the critical issues we have laid out. 

The Reformation of Jamie Meade

Praying he won’t die behind bars, Jamie Meade is making the case for his release from the Michigan prison system.

In that effort, he has the unwavering support of family and friends.  Also advocating on his behalf are a pastor who leads the church he belongs to, and a university professor who watched him get a bachelor’s degree while serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Even the judge who handed down that sentence says Mr. Meade should be set free.

In a 2020 letter to the Michigan Parole Board, the judge, now retired, wrote that mandatory sentencing laws compelled her to send Mr. Meade behind bars for life even though he was just 19 when participating in a robbery that ended in murder. As Mr. Meade endures his 28th year of incarceration, the person who actually fired the fatal shots has been out of prison for more than 12 years.

“If I were sentencing today, had discretion, and was not bound by the mandatory sentence, I probably would have sentenced him to no more than his co-defendant… and Mr. Meade would have walked out of prison 15 years ago,” wrote the judge, who added that she’d never before written the Parole Board to advocate for an inmate’s release.

That was before the Coronavirus began sweeping through Michigan’s prisons. As of mid-June, 239 inmates at the state’s Macomb Correctional Facility, where Mr. Meade is housed, have contracted COVID-19. He is one of them.

Five have died.

Mr. Meade has, so far, survived. But, like everyone else, he is unsure what might happen if he becomes re-exposed to COVID-19.

“This is a novel issue, a novel virus,” he says. “So, they are not sure about a lot of this stuff.”

He is correct.

As NPR recently reported: “Most people infected with the novel Coronavirus develop antibodies in response. But scientists don't know whether people who have been exposed to the Coronavirus will be immune for life, as is usually the case for the measles, or if the disease will return again and again, like the common cold.”

That uncertainty adds urgency to what was already an intense effort on the part of many people to help Mr. Meade gain his freedom. His support, in part, stems from all he has accomplished while imprisoned.

Now 47, he has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies from Adams State University. He is currently pursuing an MBA from Adams and a Master of Divinity from the Chicago Theological Seminary. His hope is to become an ordained minister.

Trying to help him reach that goal as a free man is Deborah Conrad, pastor of the Flint church Mr. Meade joined last year.

“I have never heard Jamie place blame beyond himself for his incarceration, never known him not to take full responsibility,” Ms. Conrad wrote to the Parole Board. “I am inspired myself by Jamie’s energy and personal investment in a better future, and hope this Board can see its way to commute his sentence and let him live into the future he has been building.

“As often as prison fails, Jamie is perhaps the model of what we hope it can accomplish; he has grown into a man I would be pleased to have as a neighbor and colleague. I thank you for your consideration, as I, with Jamie and others, await word of your grace and mercy."