There are many critical aspects of Michigan’s department of corrections that are in need of reform. There are tens of thousands of people that suffer from the plethora of issues including prisoners themselves as well as their families and allies. While there are many people who recognize these issues, there aren’t many spaces to come together and discuss potential solutions and strategize towards the implementation of those solutions. The weekend of August 23rd and 24th the Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity (MAPS) group hosted their annual, Bend the Bars conference in order to create that space. Attendees included local organizers as well as groups from across the country including Kansas City IWOC, Milwaukee IWOC, Fight Toxic Prisons and the NYC Black Panther Party. The event was a robust opportunity for Michigan based and regionally aligned organizers to connect and focus on ending mass incarceration and abolition in Michigan.
Participation from Across the Nation
MAPS organizers did a fantastic job executing their Bend the Bars conference. Topics of discussions ranged from addressing family specific issues to developing abolitionist media makers. Panel discussions included heavy hitting activists like Wisconsin’s Ben Turk who coordinated the 2016 National Prison Strikes as well as formally incarcerated game changers like Willis-X who wrote several very popular statewide newsletters (Spectator, Michigan Lifers Report and Cure Lifelong) from behind the wall. Panelists also included prolific research writer Dennis Boatwright, founder of Scholars Behind Bars and Harold Hadley, who’d assisted in coordinating the Kinross Uprising and had been released less than a week prior to the conference date. Bend the Bars was a free, public event open to activists from all ends of the spectrum, but MAPS was able to make the conference inclusive while still making sure that it felt safe for abolitionists to share their ideas and network among one other.
Centering Incarcerated Voices
Most significantly, MAPS centered the voices of incarcerated folks and their families in creative ways throughout the event with the use of scheduled telephone calls and transcribed letters, one letter from Randal LaFevre shared, “With 2.3 million citizens behind bars, and a hearty church of each state budget going to the Department of Corrections, America realizes that mass incarceration is no longer financially feasible just as chattel slavery was no longer financially feasible in 1865”. Many reformists fail to consult prisoners in their process, but as abolitionists its critical that we center their experiences. Financial limitations have pushed conservatives to the edge that liberals and radicals have been teetering on for decades. Now everyone has an ear to hear out different solutions to the problem that tough-on-crime politicians created. The presentations rather than being lecture heavy were more conversational. There were moments when presenters posed questions to audience members that went on to take over the discussion. Conferences like these, focused on abolition, prisoner advocacy and ending mass incarceration, are essential for us to have all around the country throughout the year so that we can share ideas give each other updates on local movements while strategizing together towards better solutions.
There are dozens of organizations focused on a large variety of criminal justice related issues all across the state ranging from prison conditions to sentencing and reforms. Another incarcerated participant voiced some of the may concerns that are engrossing Michigan’s prisons, “MDOC food service is still serving poor quality food with very small portions of food, prisoners are still being abused daily in segregation, officers are abusing the power with these tasers they are now allowed to carry in prison, and not alot of programs in prion to get a prisoner prepared to leave prison to return back to society with computer skills etc…Prisoners are nothing but a big warehouse where society hides its own mistakes! And a big business! MDOC really does not rehabilitate a prisoner; if a prisoner does not take the initiative to rehabilitate themselves by reflecting on their past mistakes in life, reading all and any improvement books, studying, etc… then it will not get done”. Prisoners have taken it upon themselves to seek solutions to these many problems but they cannot do it alone. It can be difficult to know where to start and how to appropriate resources in order to be most effective.
The conference highlighted the fact that it’s helpful to look towards prisoners themselves for guidance. Rand Gould, a prisoner currently being housed at Central Michigan Correctional Facility, identified some key issues that supporters should focus on in the fight dismantle the oppressive conditions of Michigans prisons. Gould’s points were targeted at increasing departments transparency and reforming over punitive sentences. The lack of transparency in MDOC, and corrections departments nationwide, allow for the consistent abuse of its residents without any accountability. To address this Gould calls for the introduction of bills that would give the Legislative Corrections Ombudsman (LCO) active oversight of MDOC with the authority to enforce rules in partnership with the state’s attorney general. The current lack of authoritative oversight has opened the door for extreme abuses that have expanded from case-by-case individual incidents of abuse to entire populations being grossly mismanaged by officials. For example, Gould identified MDOC cattlebarns, “originally opened as ’Temporary Facilities’ three decades ago, promptly made permanent and double bunked, which should be condemned, with leaking roofs, black mold infested ceilings, crumbling foundations, ad nauseam” that house thousands of Michigan’s inmates in decrepit, overcrowded conditions.
Another significant element of Gould’s suggestions to Michigan’s activists were related to sentencing. Michigan’s prisoners on average serve 140% of their sentence in comparison to individuals with identical crimes in other states. This drastic case of over sentencing is a result of mandatory minimums, indeterminate sentences and heavy restrictions on disciplinary credit earnings. In order to address this Gould included the potential of the restoration of good time credits to allow prisoners to earn time off of their sentences, incentivizing good behavior. Along with this there is also a call for eliminating the sentence of life without parole, placing a cap on life sentences and giving every person the opportunity to be reviewed the parole board for release. Many of Michigan’s prisoners, including those sentenced as juveniles, that are serving long indeterminate sentences that span decades. Many of those people have minimums greater than twenty years where they’re unable to demonstrate their development to the parole board until they reach that minimum. Gould proposes a system that would allow for these prisoners to meet with the parole board after serving a minimum of ten years, to be reviewed every five years for a possibility of release. These are the changes that have been identified by a person who is directly impacted by this system that could transform Michigan’s corrections department. Directing our resources to calls that are anything less than these would be wasteful and misguided.
#BurnBidensBills
