Michigan Justice Alliance for Family and Court Integrity

The Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative is a comprehensive program developed by the Michigan First Movement to address the many problems within our state’s judicial and family welfare systems. The Initiative provides grant opportunities to communities that would like to implement reforms and restore our state’s faith, families, and fidelity to the constitution. This means that they work to improve the weaknesses in Michigan’s current court systems that have harmed many of our communities and faith in our public institutions. By increasing transparency and accountability within justice and public safety agencies, this Initiative provides a framework and opportunities for local communities to create a more family-centered, constitutional-based judicial system.

With a comprehensive range of grant opportunities available through the Initiative, there are many ways for organizations to get involved. Michigan State Bar Foundation Administration of Justice grants are available to fund initiatives that improve the access and efficiency of Michigan courts. Self-Help Center grants can provide funding for the creation of resource centers to help people access the help they need to file important documents without being restricted by exorbitant attorney fees. Title II Juvenile Justice grants are available for communities who would like to apply reform in juvenile diversion programs and rehabilitation. Michigan Indigent Defense Commission (MIDC) funds can also be applied for to help ensure that the poor can access quality legal defense. By making available these types of funding opportunities, the Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative is ensuring that communities across Michigan have the tools to adapt the Initiative to their needs to help reform the broken judicial system within their communities, center on families, and protect the constitution.

Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative work is guided by a set of universal values that cross political lines. The Initiative works on the understanding that faith, families, and the constitution are essential to the foundation of stable communities. Parents must be protected in their rights, and strong families are the building blocks for a healthy society. The reforms are designed with the state and federal constitutions at their foundation, ensuring that court changes uphold true rights and do not further the replacement of objective laws with subjective policy. Faith traditions that have long informed communities’ understanding of justice and family integrity are respected and embraced. By taking this approach, the Initiative has created a natural constituency for their judicial reforms across both political and social lines. Through the universal values that make up the foundation of the Initiative, they have been able to create unity where division has historically existed.

The Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative directly addresses the issue of judicial activism by creating a merit-based judicial selection process. Political interference is cut out by implementing clear and objective criteria for judicial candidates. Prospective judges are vetted and interviewed based on their understanding of the constitution, temperament, and ability to apply the law impartially. Judicial candidates are also required to answer questions on topics of law where politically charged issues may be involved. The aim is to ensure that those selected as judges are those who view their roles as the interpreters of laws and not the creators of laws. The method also aims to ensure the judicial selection process is representative by factoring in community input, making sure that a judge selected is one who best fits with the community they will be serving. While the selection process creates the right balance between democratic values and professionalism by incorporating community input, it also checks the activist judges who make decisions based on their personal views by not allowing candidates to proceed if they do not meet the set criteria.

The Initiative also addresses the many reforms needed by CPS. The Initiative makes sure that children are not removed from their homes and placed in out-of-home settings without appropriate and higher standards of proof to show that they are in actual danger. The Initiative also makes provisions for family reunifications by instituting rapid reintegration measures so that families are not unnecessarily separated just because out-of-home placement can be found first. The main goal of CPS is now making sure that children are safe with their own parents by providing family preservation services to parents who need assistance. This is because the Initiative states that the majority of children can be in safe hands of their parents with the help of family preservation services. The Initiative also ensures cultural competence among CPS workers through the initiation of a training requirement. This will help reduce overrepresentation in particular populations and improve services. Through these reforms, the Initiative will help transform CPS from an agency that is feared by all parents into an agency that people can comfortably work with.

The Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative seeks to remove incentives that have been shown to make some public safety and justice system agencies counterproductive in their efforts. In some instances, the institutions’ funding is based on case numbers and not on helping individuals who are in need or solving issues. The Initiative through its funding opportunities would like to remove that type of incentive and ensure that public safety and justice agencies are incentivized to help, not to prolong cases so that their funding keeps flowing. When it comes to policing and enforcement agencies, such as police, forfeiture is not allowed because it would create perverse incentives that could make these agencies aggressive to ensure they are funded. When it comes to family courts, the Initiative removes incentives for unnecessarily prolonging child cases by unbalancing the fee schedule for parents who decide to prolong their cases. Family preservation and reunification are incentivized by making sure the funds follow children who can be kept with their parents rather than giving them to social workers so they can be in out-of-home settings. This will help ensure that incentives for all public safety and justice institutions are checked.

One of the best ways to check corruption and inefficiency is by demanding transparency and that is what the Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative does. By demanding transparency, the Initiative is helping all public safety and justice agencies to keep publicly accessible dashboards that display their metrics, spending, and key performance indicators. Financial disclosures are made public for all judges and heads of agencies so that they do not make or influence decisions based on conflicts of interest. Financial and activity audits are also conducted to ensure that every dollar spent is properly accounted for and that policies are being implemented as stipulated. Whistleblower policies are put in place to encourage any citizen who might have an inside view of any malpractice to report to proper authorities and have their concerns addressed. The Initiative also creates citizen review boards that have power and authority to review performance, spending, and policies and ensure that public safety and justice agencies are fulfilling their mission. By demanding that the institutions it funds to provide the basic transparency provisions, the Initiative helps to make it easy to detect, disincentivize, and deter corruption and inefficiency.

The Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative are one of the important approaches that will provide a wide range of tools for communities across the state to make justice more family-centered. Through a combination of judicial accountability, judicial selection reforms, family preservation, and transparency, the Initiative aims to address the various factors contributing to the challenges that Michigan’s public safety and justice systems are facing. With its diverse funding opportunities, the Michigan First Justice and Family Safety Initiative are helping communities across the state to implement needed reforms and tailor it to their particular needs and priorities. As more communities are drawn to implement the Initiative, we can all look forward to having a judicial and public safety system that better reflects our common values, is more transparent and accountable, centers on families rather than tear them apart, and puts fidelity to the constitution first.