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Crime survivors

Inside Voices – August 2024

Michigan’s prisons are understaffed and overcrowded On July 3, 2024, Corrections Union President Byron Osborn “sounded the alarm” announcing prisons are dangerously understaffed and unsafe, and calling on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to deploy the National Guard as a temporary solution until permanent measures can be taken. The department owns and operates 26 prison complexes, 17 [...]

Meet new Community Engagement Fellow Ceci Bordayo

Ceci Bordayo has many notable accomplishments in her life. She’s written and recorded “House of Secrets,” a song about her family’s secrets surrounding physical and sexual abuse, which has helped countless people come to terms with their own trauma. Her painful childhood experiences also became the genesis for “Pass the Mic,” a storytelling platform she [...]

2023-11-26T23:39:15-05:00November 26th, 2023|Categories: Blog, Crime survivors, Sex offenses, Trauma|

Hear some ‘Inside Voices’ – August 2023

Second Look leads to second chances My name is John Halcomb. I am 60 years old. I regret my violent behavior every day as I am reminded through the violence I see in my prison environment. This prison violence, however, began my rehabilitation when it caused me to empathically place myself in my victim's place. [...]

Meet Zack Whaley, our new communications specialist

The technical aspects of photography, videography, and sound design have always been fascinating to Zack Whaley. He has spent many afternoons casually reading white papers on video compression algorithms or stacked CMOS image sensors. He wants to know every detail about the way a piece of gear works before he feels like he knows how [...]

2023-05-26T09:42:06-04:00May 25th, 2023|Categories: Blog, Crime survivors|

Meet Kenneth Nixon, our new Director of Community Outreach and Partnerships

It’s tragic that Kenneth Nixon’s false conviction cost him 16 years of freedom, but it’s fair to wonder, perhaps selfishly, what it cost everyone else. Since his 2021 release from prison, Kenneth has proven to be a skilled problem solver and coalition builder. As president of the Organization of the Exonerees, he has worked with [...]

2023-02-21T15:21:32-05:00February 21st, 2023|Categories: Blog, Courts, Crime survivors, Racial equity, Reentry, Sentencing|

Meet Safe & Just Michigan’s New Senior Research Specialist Cassie Larrieux

Cassie Larrieux is comfortable with data. She can talk about ratios and intervals or qualitative and quantitative information like most people can talk about what was on television last night or who won the big game. But for all that, Larrieux never loses sight of what those numbers truly show — the people whose stories [...]

2022-06-29T13:38:53-04:00June 29th, 2022|Categories: Blog, Crime survivors, Trauma|

2020 in review: A year of extremes

This past year has been one of extremes. The COVID-19 pandemic has been tragic and caused enormous loss, as many people with loved ones inside prison know all too well. At the other extreme, it has also been a year of unprecedented gains in criminal justice reforms. In between, all of us at Safe & [...]

An Evidence-Based Discussion to End the Sex Offender Registry

There are more than 44,000 people on Michigan’s bloated sex offender registry — more people than are incarcerated inside Michigan prisons — and this number grows yearly. For more than 90 percent of people on this list, registration is for 25 years to life. While there is a process to petition for removal from the [...]

2020-06-03T16:56:32-04:00June 3rd, 2020|Categories: Blog, Crime survivors, Mental health, Parole, Recidivism, Reentry, Sex offenses|

Join us for a VIRTUAL Day of Empathy

It has been a difficult few weeks full of changes and challenges for all of us, We want to send our best wishes to you, your friends, and to your family during these trying times. One helpful things to do during a crisis is to keep connected and maintain a sense purpose. That’s why we’re [...]

Breaking the cycle of trauma and prison

(Please note: the following blog post contains the reflections of formerly incarcerated people in their own words, and it covers material that is emotionally sensitive such as rape and gun violence.)   Daniel Jones’ life changed forever when his parents separated when he was just a young boy. Up to then, he felt secure and [...]