In the aftermath of the 2020 uprisings sparked by the killing of George Floyd, communities across the United States grappled with calls to reimagine public safety, confront police violence, and question the role of the carceral system. Amid this national reckoning, many cities began exploring alternatives to traditional policing, focusing on approaches that prioritize healing,...Read More
Metro Detroit Restorative Justice Network (MDRJN) is a special project of the Detroit Justice Center (DJC) that seeks to develop community-led responses to harm that do not rely on the police or prison systems. This project is grounded in a growing abolitionist movement in Detroit, which advocates for alternatives that focus on healing and accountability...Read More
We exist in times marked by both rapid decay and transformative change. Such dialectic tension largely stems from what is known as the extractive economy. The rise of the authoritarian police state, federal funding cuts towards vital human services, and the rampant exploitation of natural resources must not be understood as isolated crises but the...Read More
Before the Detroit Justice Center became a national leader in the fight to transform the justice system, it was an idea we discussed at the Macomb Prison. In 2015, I was still serving a life sentence at Macomb when I met Amanda Alexander, who would found DJC years later in 2018.Read More
Nationally, 2024 was an unpredictable year with a number of unprecedented turns. The year at DJC was not nearly so chaotic, though we did experience highs and lows. Thank you for helping us bring Detroiters’ freedom dreams to life. Check out what you’ve helped us accomplish!Read More
It is an often-repeated “fun fact” that the human body replaces all of its cells every seven years. While the science is a bit more complicated than that, it’s worth reflecting on what the Detroit Justice Center has shed and replenished over the past seven years as we celebrate our birthday. Read More
Our legal services attorneys have noticed that many of our clients face similar issues in Michigan housing law. We created this handy one-pager that lays out common issues people might face, the MI laws pertaining to them, and potential remedies to the issues.Read More
DJC’s Metro Detroit Restorative Justice Network (MDRJN) concluded its third Community Circle Keeper Training on Saturday, July 14th! Over five weeks, 14 participants from various fields, including peer mental health crisis response, abolition, public education, legal system, higher education, counseling, and community organizing, gathered in a circle to learn about restorative justice. Read More
At the Detroit Justice Center, we often use the phrase Just Cities to talk about an envisioned future where every life is valued equally. Our discussions always include affordable and safe housing for all. Without stable housing, we are at our most vulnerable, which is why we insist on housing as a human right. One...Read More
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and as the month draws to a close, we wanted to highlight the work of our Senior Program Manager, Sheba Rogers, who is currently undertaking a mental health ecosystem scan of Detroit. We asked Sheba about what she’s been working on, and about the state of mental health care...Read More
