The one year mark since the original introduction of the Good Time Bill is right around the corner. February of 2018 was when the bipartisan HB 5666 was first introduced in Michigan’s legislature by Representatives David LeGrand (D) and Martin Howrylak (R). Over the year since the bill was introduced its been stalled in the Law & Justice committee for review under Committee Chairman Klint Kesto who has yet to bring the bill that tens of thousands of lives depend on before the house for a vote.
Knowing that the bill had been stalled for much too long, in April supporters began to collect signatures from residents in order to bypass the congressional vote to get the bill onto the ballot. After collecting thousands of signatures organizers were unable to secure the number required to get Good Time in front of voters in November of 2018. This was majorly due to the fact that supporters started collecting signatures much later than what would have been ideal. Still supporters weren’t discouraged and refocused their energy towards beginning to collect signatures earlier in the year. However a new bill, HB 6595 threatens the very process by which canvassers depend on in order to initiate legislation.
Republicans Aim to Restrict Citizens’ Initiative Rights
Recently Republicans instituted a new law that would completely change the signature collection process for Michigan residents. HB 6595 demands that rather than supporters for a bill having to collect a certain number of signatures from residents in Michigan, the new law would add an extra obstacle to the signature collecting process by requiring citizens to collect a certain number of signatures from residents in each county. The law also requires canvassers to identify whether they are paid or volunteer and failure to do so would result in all of the canvassers signatures being voided. These obstacles only work to make canvassing more difficult for residents.
This is a dangerous law for not only supporters of Good Time, but also for any group trying to initiate legislation in Michigan. In the grand scheme of national politics the legislative tactic to restrict residents ability to bypass the congressional voting process threatens the possibility of residents to do so in other states. If we allow such legislation to continue to restrict citizens right it could become a trend that spreads to other states across the nation. Residents’ right to initiate legislation on the ballot for election should not be threatened or restricted in any way. Especially recently, seeing how slow congressional process has been on both a state and federal level. Representatives in both parties should be doing what they can to maximize residents legislative power. Sadly they are attempting to do the opposite by restricting residents legislative power through the creation of a law that it makes it difficult to reach the necessary number of signatures needed on a petition. Representatives, knowing that they are already bogged down by the amount of bills and laws waiting for introduction, revision and approval should be more than willing to allow citizens to contribute to getting bills onto the ballot that they’re passionate about passing. It’s no coincidence that this move was made by Republicans just one cycle after a year when more than five petition drives were featured on the ballot. Sadly, representatives have shown more interest in passing a law that degrades citizens’ initiative rights by diminishing petition rights.
Slow to Liberate Yet Quick to Restrict
By the time that I was made aware of the HB 6595’s existence, little to our knowledge (mine and the activists who’d informed me) the bill had already been passed. Once we became aware of the threat, the rights of Michigan residents to initiate legislation had already been restricted. The bill flew through the congressional voting process in less than a month. With how slow congress seems to move to every bill I had been following over the past year, I had no idea that the process to introduce, revise and vote on in both houses could go as smooth as it had for this bill. It had been introduced by Republican James Lower in the first week of December and was passed by the house no more than a week later. Had representatives been as eager to reduce the prison population as they were to restrict citizens petitioning rights, Good Time would never have waited in the committee for 12 months. Looking at this bill’s history I was amazed by how quickly congress introduced, reviewed, passed and initiated the bill. The Bill was presented to approved by Governor Bill Schuette in one day.
It’s essential that we realize as criminal justice reformists and prison abolitionists that those forces against us are working overtime, through the holidays, to restrict our rights and especially the rights of the incarcerated. Honestly, we can’t afford a break if we want to influence legislation, especially those initiatives related to criminal justice reform. Good Time continues to hang in the balance, not only because it sits in the Law & Justice Committee for Chairman Kesto’s approval, but majorly because we did not take full advantage of the opportunity to get this bill onto the ballot when we had the chance. We need to stop waiting and start making the changes that we want to see in our state. We need to demonstrate our commitment to lowering the population of incarcerated people in Michigan by staying on top of any legislation introduced with that intention.
