Battle Creek Times

A series of newly proposed policies are aimed at fine-tuning the state of Michigan’s criminal justice system and keeping it as fair and equitable as can be.

Earlier this year, the state became one of a growing number of states to require that the government register a criminal conviction before they are allowed to take someone’s property as part of any civil asset forfeiture proceedings.  

State lawmakers also recently moved to make the journey back for those with criminal backgrounds easier to navigate by introducing bills outlawing blanket bans on those with felony convictions. The occupational licensing bills now sitting in the House Regulatory Reform Committee also include measures that would establish that a “state agency no longer explicitly denies people from working by assuming a criminal record automatically shows a lack of ‘good moral character,’” the Mackinac Center for Public Policy reports.

On the expungement front, lawmakers are seeking to simplify the process through a series of measures aimed at making it easier to have low-level crimes removed from one’s background. In some cases, the process would even be automatic based on the ex-offender's extended period of good behavior.

The state has also recently introduced a bail reform package that could keep those not considered serious threats out of jail while saving taxpayers the high costs of keeping them incarcerated.

Finally, the state seems poised to join most others by outlawing the practice of automatically charging 17-year-olds as adults. Policies accounting for mental illness are also being considered as are studies that could impact how the state comes to address the issue of sentencing disparity.