ID: Amanda Alexander smiling in the DJC Office in front of a yellow wall with the DJC Logo on it. She is wearing a dark blue patterned dress and has dangly earrings. Dear friends, I moved back to Michigan almost a decade ago to serve families like mine that had been divided by incarceration. At the time, I’d only recently begun to be able to talk about my father’s incarceration without my voice shaking. He went to prison when I was in elementary school, but the trauma of our separation and all that flowed from it still vibrated in my body. As a new attorney, I represented incarcerated mothers and fathers at risk of losing their parental rights. Together we worked to get their children out of foster care and placed with relatives until they could come home. I also represented parents and caregivers trapped in cycles of police stops, tickets, mounting fines and fees, warrants for missed court dates, nights in jail, evictions, and CPS cases. I came to know Detroiters who were holding families and communities together against all odds: grandparents raising grandchildren after their own sons and daughters were locked up; faith groups renting buses so that...
Read More