ISSUE 3 2022 | CSG CAPITOL IDEAS
JUSTICE for A L L
10
Michigan Chief Justice Bridget McCormack says civic health begins with justice reform. By Joel Sams
Serving as co-chair of a jail and pretrial task force in 2019, Michigan Chief Justice Bridget McCormack had a problem to solve: what was behind the increasing number of people in the state’s county jails? What she discovered was a series of legislative decisions that criminalize certain behaviors, like driving with a suspended license. Those decisions were made in good faith, McCormack says, but they came with unintended consequences. “Once [those decisions] were made, officers had to make arrests … and they made those arrests in good faith following the law,” she said. “Prosecutors charged those crimes in good faith; judges, in good faith, set bail, and all of a sudden, before we knew it, our jail populations were full of people who couldn't afford to pay fines and fees and were driving with a suspended license as a result of it.” These policies didn’t just lead to an increase in jail populations. McCormack says they also failed to work as intended. “There's now lots of really good research that shows [this approach] doesn't, in fact, make our communities safer or stronger,” she said. McCormack, who was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 2012, also serves as co-chair of the Human Health subcommittee of the CSG Healthy States National Task Force her experience illustrates the unique