A group of lawmakers, judges, and law enforcement is starting to get a better idea of who is in Michigan’s jails and why.
A state task force met Friday, the members got their first data dump from the PEW Charitable Trusts.
The PEW Charitable Trusts is working on collecting jail, court and arrest data from across the state to help the task force come up with recommendations for improvement.
Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist is on the state task force. He says the state’s criminal justice system has the chance to “reset” its attitude toward non-violent offenders.
“Probably my big takeaway is that there’s been some narrative nationally that a lot of the work on non-violent offenses has been done, and I think there’s still a lot of work to do in Michigan on that.”
The information from PEW revealed that 17 percent of people in jail for driving without a license stay in jail for more than a week. It also found that the number one offense people in Michigan are arrested for is failing to appear in court.