MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – According to the Prison Policy Initiative Michigan has an incarceration rate of 599 per 100,000 people.
“[Michigan is] well above the national average,” remarked Bonnie Zabel, the Northern Michigan regional coordinator for Nation Outside.
Organizations like Nation Outside are fighting for legislative change to try and lower the number of incarcerated individuals in the state.
“We drive policy and practice reforms for transformative systems of support within our communities for incarcerated individuals,” added Zabel.
Tonight the group partnered with the Prison Creative Arts Project to put artwork by inmates on display. The goal is to shed a different light on those in the prison system.
“Being creative and everything leads us to humanizing those inside the prison walls,” said Nadia El Anani, the President of the Adolescent Redemptive and Restorative Program.
Senator Ed McBroom showed his support for the groups, stopping the event and chatting with organizers. Nation Outside and the Adolescent Redemptive and Restorative Program are advocating for Michigan to adopt a “second look” law.
The law, if passed, would give prisoners a chance to have their sentence reevaluated after a decade behind bars.
“They have the opportunity to go back to their sentencing court and ask for some relief on their sentence, they get to look at what they’ve done for the decade of time,” Zabel went on to say “how they have rehabilitated and the person they have become.”
Throughout the weekend Nation Outside will be hosting a number of events in the Marquette area. You can find a full list of events here.
