Peterson recently completed a stint as one of 19 members of the Michigan Jail Reform Advisory Council, created to track the effects of recent changes to the state’s practices in jailing people accused of breaking the law.

Feedback gleaned from public forums and online submissions guided the council in helping to implement numerous changes to state laws related to the handling of people in jail.

Those revisions led, among other changes, to the restoration of driver’s licenses to more than 150,000 Michigan residents in the past year, according to the Advisory Council’s report.

Inmate rolls at the Alpena County Jail fell since the laws’ adoption, but Alpena County Sheriff Erik Smith called it too soon to attribute that change to new state regulations.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Corp. Kerry Volant, corrections officer at the Alpena County Jail, opens the door of an empty holding cell at the jail on Monday.

While it doesn’t yet have the data to prove the lasting impact of new incarceration laws, the Advisory Council says the state needs to continue teaching judges, attorneys, and police about the legal changes of the past few years and create unified data systems to align jails and courts across the state.

After several years of listening to people impacted by incarceration, Peterson said the state needs to keep studying how, when, and why it jails people.

“Their stories open your eyes,” Peterson said. “You hear about it, but you don’t realize it until it’s right there in your face.”

Peterson found himself as the lone northern Michigan representative on the state’s Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration — a precursor to the Advisory Council — after he signed up for a breakout group on jails at a conference a few years ago.

Formed in 2019, the task force studied the data, laws, and practices surrounding skyrocketing inmate populations in Michigan jails and prisons. In 2020, the task force recommended changes that sparked at least 20 jail reform bills altering the way police and the courts respond to violations of the law.

Peterson and the task force met at downstate locations, inviting the public to weigh in on which incarceration habits the state should change.

Up to several hundred people showed up for those forums, many of them sharing stories of the challenges that accompany incarceration.

They’d talk, Peterson said, about a spouse or child stuck in jail for minor crime, unable to afford bond.

About an arrest on a non-driving offense leading to a suspended driver’s license, leading to a lost job.

About getting sent back to jail because, without that job, they couldn’t pay child support, or because they missed an appointment with a probation officer because they couldn’t legally drive to get there.

“It just keeps adding up,” Peterson said. “A person never gets ahead.”

As an employer, he felt the impact of one recent reform when several of his employees got help restoring their driver’s licenses, relieving him of wondering whether they would show up for their job.

“You can hire people,” he said, “but if they can’t get to work, what do you do?”

The bills that resulted from the task force’s recommendations, many adopted in January 2021, instruct police to give more appearance tickets in place of arrests, prevent the suspension of driver’s licenses for non-traffic-related infractions, and allow more leeway for judges to impose non-jail sentences for nonviolent offenses, among other changes.

To see if those law revisions made the intended changes to Michigan’s incarceration rate, the state formed the Jail Reform Advisory Council, inviting Peterson to continue his role representing rural counties.

Also made up of judges, attorneys, police heads, state legislators, and others associated with incarceration systems, the Advisory Council studied the impact of the recent reforms, releasing a report on its findings on Dec. 29.

Data gathered by the council shows fewer people sentenced to jail only for non-serious crime and a 50% reduction in the number of drivers with a suspended license, thanks to so-called “clean slate” reforms.

Other impacts of jail reform legislation can’t be accurately measured, the report said, because police, jails, and courts across the state use different data systems, making comparison impossible.

The Advisory Council’s report recommended the state create unified data and case management systems and keep training judges and attorneys to make sure they understand and follow the new rules.

At the local level, jail administrators are hard pressed to say whether changes they see at their jails stem from legislative changes or the lingering impacts of COVID-19, Smith said.

The current Alpena County Jail’s population is lower than five years ago, but jail inmates face more serious charges than those of past inmates, with most incarcerated people accused or convicted of drug or violent crimes, Smith said.

Whether because of pandemic changes to policing or because of changed laws, corrections officers book fewer people charged with infractions such as driving with a suspended license. Many of those given appearance tickets instead of arrest end up in jail anyway, however, because they don’t show up for court, Smith said.

“It’s only changing when they’re getting there,” he said, “not changing the population.”

The pandemic also reduced jail congestion by getting local businesses in the habit of closing early. Bars and fast-food restaurants that used to stay open until the wee hours of the night now close early, leaving a town that’s largely shut down by 8 p.m. and police with fewer arrests to make, the sheriff said.

Numbers can’t yet prove whether the large-scale criminal justice reforms at the state level will actually lead to less-crowded jails and lives improved by alternatives to incarceration. The Advisory Council expects a data analysis in mid-2023 will bring them closer to understanding the long-term impact of new laws, Peterson said.

In the meantime, the state has at its disposal the 30-some pages of public comments included in the Advisory Council’s report and the stories of people personally impacted by incarceration to maintain their sense of urgency in making sure its big changes actually change lives.

Giving heed to those real stories was the council’s most important work, Peterson said.

“Now that I’ve listened to people,” he said, “and I’ve seen the problems they have and the needs they need, there is inequity out there, and it needs to be addressed.”

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