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In the flurry of end-of-session bills descending onto the floors of both chambers of Michigan’s state legislature, lawmakers are considering bill packages to offer individuals in prison a “second look” at their sentences or productivity credits to get out early.

Proponents of the bills proclaim that Michiganders want reforms to the state’s criminal justice system that offer second chances to those who have changed with time or were too young to absorb the gravity of their criminal actions. Some members of the criminal justice system, including victims of crimes, say the legislative efforts prioritize those who have committed violence over the safety and rights of those who had no say in becoming victims.

There are many things to be proud of in Michigan, but its criminal justice system isn’t necessarily one of them, state Rep. Amos O’Neal, D-Saginaw, told media last week pointing to Michigan keeping people in prison for longer and sentencing more juveniles to life than most other states. He argued that the legislation would encourage the opportunity to consider when society would be better served by a person’s release than continued incarceration.

“This is not a free ticket out. It’s a process for the parole board to hear you, see what type of programs you’ve been in,” O’Neal said. “We’re sensitive to the concerns of our victims, but we also have to think about there are victims on both sides. There are families associated with both sides… and so you have to take that into totality and be realistic and not be insensitive.”

Many of the bills that advanced out of committee to the floor in the last week saw little movement for more than a year, to the ire of reform advocates, and were unexpectedly advanced in the final days of the legislative session as Democrats prepare to give up their short-lived majority in the state House.

MICHIGAN STATE REP. Amos O’Neal speaks in November 2023 at a news conference in Lansing to sign legislation to limit gun access to those convicted of domestic violence offenses. (Anna Liz Nichols/Michigan Advance)

‘Second Look’

Proponents for legislation to offer “Second Look” hearings to examine if a person can be released early after they have served at least 20 years of their sentence, say lengthy prison sentences in many cases do little to make the state more safe, failing to work towards the goals of rehabilitation and deterrence that the prison system is charged with.

The American Bar Association supports Second Look legislation to review lengthy sentences after at least a decade in an effort to combat “bias in the justice system by reforming laws and practices that have an unjustifiably disproportionate impact on protected classes of individuals, e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic class.”

While members of the criminal justice system for decades believed that lengthy sentences served to promote public safety as offenders were largely viewed as “incapable of rehabilitation,” the system has changed for the better, recognizing the power of healing in prisons, Fair and Just Prosecution, or FJP said in testimony submitted to the House Criminal Justice Committee in March. The group, which consists of prosecutors from around the country interested in criminal justice reform, say that as states have pursued efforts to amend unproductive sentencing laws and promote rules to ensure individuals don’t reoffend, those serving lengthy sentences under old rules have been left behind.

“Too many members of our communities are aging in prisons, often serving sentences far longer than they would receive for comparable conduct today,” FJP said in written testimony. “And many of them can safely return to our communities and deserve to be considered for an opportunity to come home.”

STATE SEN. ED McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, at a hearing in October 2021 at the state Capitol in Lansing. (Laina G. Stebbins/Michigan Advance)

The Second Look Sentencing Act, comprising House Bills 4556, 4557, 4558, 4559 and 4560 would allow incarcerated individuals to petition for a second look at their sentence after serving 20 years in prison. Any and all offenses would be eligible for petition except for those who committed a mass shooting. Courts recieving a petition for a second look resentencing could reject holding a hearing at its discretion for some violent offenses such as sexual abuse of children, including producing sexually abusive materials, domestic or aggravated assault with other convictions or human trafficking offenses.

The average age of individuals serving sentences in Michigan prisons in 2022 was 41 years old, up from 35 years old in 2002, according to annual data from the Michigan Department of Corrections.

By the time an individual has served more than 10 years in prison, they’re often past their window of risk for criminal activity, Safe & Just Michigan said in submitted testimony to the House Criminal Justice Committee in March. The organization, which advocates for criminal justice reform policy, argues that individuals who commit criminal acts early in life are often “different people” after a decade in prison, having matured and hopefully received rehabilitative services, able to positively impact their local community.

The bill package cleared the House Criminal Justice committee without support of any Republicans on the committee last Tuesday.

Not everyone is supportive of the Second Look Sentencing Act, as there are crime victims who say the new rules violate the protections they benefited from under truth in sentencing and worry that the peace they’ve lived under knowing their offenders are incarcerated would disappear.

Nicole Beverly has told lawmakers she knows exactly how much time she has until her ex-husband, who tried to end her life in 2009, is released from prison and she has to change her identity and relocate. Beverly, who spoke to Michigan Advance last year about her story of survival and the need for better victim services, said a second look for violent offenders means victims would be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.

“While I agree that our criminal justice system needs reform and revamping and many individuals are serving sentencing terms for non-violent crimes that are unjust, the answer is not to blindly open the floodgates for all,” Beverly said in testimony submitted to the House Criminal Justice Committee in March. “I am not sure when the focus turned so sharply from protecting victims of violent crimes which included providing them resources, shelter and other supports to instead cutting victim related funds drastically, but I am gravely concerned about the impact this is already having on victims in our state.”

Productivity credits

State Rep. Graham Filler, R-St. Johns, told the Advance last week he remembers Beverly’s case from when he was an assistant attorney general with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and it’s cases like hers, where a lengthy prison has allowed for victims to reclaim their lives from their abusers, that are the driving force of why Second Look or productivity credits are not an option.

Under Senate Bills 861, 862, 863 and 864 individuals could have up to 20% of their prison sentences reduced by participating in programming within the Department of Corrections such as educational and vocational curricula.

About 95% of people incarcerated in prison will be released at some point, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, so it’s a matter of how the justice system returns those individuals to society, Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, said in a news release introducing the bipartisan bill package in May.

“If we are going to reduce crime, we must stop repeat crime,” McBroom wrote. “Prisoners who complete Productivity Credits are better prepared to return to their communities as engaged, employed members of society who do not re-offend and create new victims. This program offers a strong incentive to complete programming that has been proven to reduce reoffending.”

Most states have some form of “good time” credits that reward constructive behavior in prison with the goal of previously incarcerated individuals being able to participate in society and the economy and end cycles of incarceration and violence. Michigan had a “good time” system until 1978, when voters revoked such allowances through a ballot initiative, which would require a 3/4ths vote from the Michigan legislature where the steep political divide between parties would likely prevent the bill from progressing.

The bills cleared the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee last Tuesday without support from the two Republicans serving on the committee.

There are about 32,000 incarcerated individuals in Michigan’s prisons, with thousands being released each year, and the hope is that individuals might be better prepared to be lawful members of local communities by the time they are released, Mayor of Detroit and gubernatorial candidate in 2026 Mike Duggan said in submitted testimony in support of productivity credits in November.

“In communities with limited opportunities for those suffering under the weight of poverty, poor educational opportunities, and hopelessness, we need our returning citizens to come home ready to contribute and help rebuild an[d] uplift our community,” Duggan wrote.

But the Michigan Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention and Treatment Board, or MDSVPTB, harbors concerns for survivors of violence if productivity credits become reality. As the board examines many pieces of legislation to determine the impact on crime victims or curbing acts of violence from occurring in the first place, chair of the board, retired Judge Elizabeth Pollard Hines, said in her opposition that up to 90% of prisoners participate in certain eligible programs, making the bill package too broad.

“The Board recognizes the value in prisoners completing educational and other programs while incarcerated to prepare them to come home ready to work and live productive lives in their communities, and such program(s) are already currently being completed,” Hines wrote in testimony submitted Tuesday. “The additional incentives offered by SBs 861-864 in the form of “productivity credits” are not needed and would harm victims.”

Over the next few weeks the legislature is expected to take up action on a downpour of criminal justice reforms and not everyone will be pleased with every part of the bills, Chair of the House Criminal Justice Committee Kara Hope, D-Holt, told media after Tuesday’s committee. But the important thing is that Michiganders across the state, including many of the individuals who have testified against some of the proposed reforms, want the system to work better, for victims and communities to be safer and for families to be reunited and be in a better place than they were when a person entered into prison.

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