Yesterday during a call about the Michigan Department of Corrections + COVID-19, I learned about the work of @MILiberation--a statewide network of people + orgs organizing to end the criminalization of Black families + communities of color in MI.

Here's the vision of liberation:

1. Freedom for Our Children to Thrive
-->investment in mental health support
-->ending the school to prison pipeline
-->charging children as adults
-->not holding children in adult facilities
-->more programs that decrease the removal of children from communities

2. Community-Determined Public Safety
-->publicly-funded neighborhood safety + teams staffed w/people who live in the community
-->changing the culture + protocols of police recruiting, retaining + promotion
-->an immediate end to facial recognition + community surveillance prgm

3. Care not Criminalization
--> investments in mental health care instead of criminalization + imprisonment of mental illness
-->individuals w/mental illness + substance abuse issues released from criminal system + given care
-->MH training for criminal legal system employees

4. Innocent until Proven Otherwise
-->end to cash bail, all pretrial fines,fees
-->end to the punitive pretrial practices of drug test, pretrial probation, monitoring
-->use tools like text reminders about court dates, transportation, etc
-->transparent info on judges/prosecutors

5. Sentencing and the Right to Redemption
-->demand an end to sentences of life without parole
-->end truth in sentencing policies, establish good time policies and develop other programs for early release
-->end Juvenile Life Without Parole and implement the "Miller factors"

6. End Prison Slavery
-->Clear protocols for communities to regularly report issues in prisons
-->Access to quality health care, menstrual equity, + unrestricted access to women’s hygiene items
-->Implement non-carceral responses to substance use, poverty, sex work, homelessness

7. Right to a Second Chance: Rebuilding Life After Incarceration
-->clean slate expungement upon release
--> independent and stable housing
-->end to all post-incarceration surveillance for people on probation + parole
-->$100M divestment from prisons + community investment

8. Justice for Wrongful Convictions
-->establish a conviction integrity unit that works in partnership with community and innocence projects
-->fulfilled commitment to compensate every wrongfully convicted person--at least 50K/year for every year they were wrongfully imprisoned

8. Cont'd
-->establish a Commission on Prosecutorial Misconduct to investigate all complaints about the abuse of prosecutorial power

This thread is a summary of the important demands developed by communities concerned about mass incarceration. @MILiberation uses "grassroots organizing, leadership development, lobbying + supports candidates that share [their] vision."

Learn more here: https://miliberation.org/