Tag Archives: prison

Citizens for Prison Reform’s Lois DeMott, a recent Ann Arbor Awesome Foundation grant recipient, featured on NBC’s Rock Center

By Mark | March 24, 2013

The Ann Arbor Awesome Foundation recently awarded a $1,000 grant to Lois DeMott, the founder of Citizens for Prison Reform. I’d interviewed Lois at the time of the award, but I’d decided to hold off posting it for a bit, as she had mentioned to me that she was going to be interviewed by Ted [...]

Posted in A2Awesome, Civil Liberties, Michigan | Also tagged Citizens for Prison Reform, Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility, Kevin DeMott, Lois DeMott, prison industry, prison reform, prisoner advocate, prisoner rights, prisoners, solitary confinement, Ted Koppel | 10 Comments

Davontae Sanford, in prison for murders he almost certainly didn’t commit, finally gets national exposure in The New Yorker

By Mark | October 23, 2012

Over the past three years, we’ve discussed the troubling case of Davontae Sanford several times. As you may recall, Davontae was taken into police custody in Detroit at the age of 14 for the murder of four people. We’re told that Davontae, who is developmentally disabled, and blind in one eye, confessed to the murders. [...]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Detroit | Also tagged Christine Moellering, coerced confessions, confessions, Dateline NBC, Davontae Sanford, getting away with murder, Kim McGinnis, Michael Russell, Michigan Court of Appeals, murder, murder for hire, murder mystery, prison industrial complex, Runyon Street, Taminko Sanford, The Innocence Project, Vincent Smothers | 21 Comments

For-profit prisons… What could possibly go wrong?

By Mark | May 27, 2012

As it’s been a while since we’ve had a post here about the prison industrial complex, I thought that I’d pass along this clip from Charles Blow’s recent piece in the New York Times. “Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. [...]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Baldwin, Charles Blow, Corrections Corporation of America, G4S, GEO Group, Group 4 Falck, honey holes, House Bill 5174, Joe Haveman, John Proos, Louisiana, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Mark Ciavarella, Michigan Department of Corrections, Michigan House of Representatives, Natalie Holbrook, North Lake Correctional Facility, North Lake Facility for Youth, overincarceration, Pennsylvania, prison industrial complex, prison industry, prison reform, prison sentences, prisoner rights, private prisons, privatization, Rick Snyder, security state, the cost of incarceration, unions, Wackenhut Corrections Corp, Wal-Mart, Wilkes-Barre | 18 Comments

Michigan Democrats unveil plan to finance free college tuition by eliminating corporate income tax credits

By Mark | January 17, 2012

This just in from our friends at Think Progress: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) spent his first year in office trading in the welfare of thousands of vulnerable Michiganders in order to cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy. Hoping to refocus priorities in 2012, the state’s Senate Democrats have released a new plan that [...]

Posted in Michigan, Uncategorized | Also tagged corporate income tax, corporate tax breaks, Gretchen Whitmer, higher education, Michigan 2020 Plan, Rick Snyder, tax credits, tax cuts, tax loopholes, The Center for Michigan, theology of tax cuts, tuition | 7 Comments

U-M’s annual Prisoner Art Show opens tomorrow

By Mark | March 22, 2010

For the next two weeks, in the University of Michigan’s North Campus Duderstadt Center Gallery, the folks from the Prison Creative Arts Project will be presenting their 15th annual exhibition of art by Michigan prisoners. This year’s collection includes over 400 pieces, pulled together from dozens of prisons scattered across the State. Having seen the [...]