What does it take to start over?

For thousands of people leaving Michigan prisons every year, it can come down to one piece of plastic: A photo ID.

This month, the Michigan Department of Corrections hit a milestone, having distributed thirty thousand government-issued IDs to incarcerated people since 2020.

That matters, because without an ID, you can’t get a job, sign a lease, open a bank account — you can’t even prove you’re you.

One in five people who leave Michigan prisons end up going back. The state says that’s the lowest it’s ever been. But what does a second chance actually look like when you walk out the door with so little?

Rick Speck knows this firsthand. He was released in 2014 after 15 years in prison. He didn’t have an ID. Now, he’s the deputy director of Nation Outside — a Michigan reentry nonprofit run by those who were formerly incarcerated.

He spoke with Robyn Vincent about his experiences and what our state and culture would look like if we believed more deeply in second chances.

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The post The Metro: Michigan gives parolees IDs. What more can be done to offer residents a second chance? appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

Michigan lawmakers from both parties expressed alarm Tuesday over growing allegations of toxic mold, medical neglect, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and systemic failures at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility. 

The post Bipartisan outrage erupts at House hearing on conditions inside Michigan’s only women’s prison appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

Momentum is finally building to address longstanding and systemic problems at Michigan’s only women’s prison as state lawmakers, local elected officials, and activists demand answers about mold, medical care, a recent death, and the treatment of a woman whose health has rapidly declined.

The post New push for accountability at Michigan women’s prison appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

An internal assessment by the Michigan Department of Corrections contradicts the state’s public claims that conditions at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility pose little cause for concern, documenting widespread infrastructure failures that create ideal conditions for mold to grow and spread.

The post State’s own report blows holes in public claims about Michigan women’s prison appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

For more than a decade, Krystal Clark has warned that mold inside Michigan’s only women’s prison is killing her.

The post Michigan inmate with mold illness begs Gov. Whitmer to save her life appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

When Gregory Berry walked out of prison in December 2020 after more than 17 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit, he said he had faced a difficult choice: Agree not to sue for wrongful imprisonment or remain incarcerated for life.

The post Wayne County prosecutors accused of freeing innocent man only if he agreed not to sue appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.

They aren’t going away.  Fifteen months after Metro Times exposed coerced confessions and illegally destroyed criminal files, exonerees and families of people still locked up are demanding action and a face-to-face meeting with Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.  In July 2024, Metro Times revealed widespread misconduct tied to now-retired Detroit homicide Detective Barbara Simon and […]

The post Families and exonerees rally against Detroit detective tied to coerced confessions and false convictions appeared first on Detroit Metro Times.