Government

Legislature seeks to limit police confiscation powers

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan lawmakers want to make it harder for law enforcement agencies to take people’s stuff when they’re not charged with a crime. Legislators have introduced bills to reform the state’s “civil forfeiture laws,” which they and civil liberties advocates say encourage abuse by police agencies and infringe on citizen rights. Civil forfeiture law in Michigan allows police and prosecutors to confiscate a person’s car, property or money if they suspect it has been used in criminal activity — even if the owner is not charged with a crime. This is different from criminal forfeiture law, which requires the owner to be convicted in court before the asset can be seized. The money and proceeds from seized assets — $24 million in 2013 — go into agency budgets.

Government

State systems for tracking heroin deaths flawed, advocates say

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NOTE — THIS IS PAIRED WITH ANOTHER STORY: Heroin problems outpace Michigan’s solutions
By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Those in the fight against heroin and opioids say one of their biggest problems is the absence of up-to-the-minute information on drug cases. A lack of official communication, outdated statistics and inconsistent reporting practices have slowed Michigan’s attempts to combat the continuing heroin and opioid problem, advocates say. They call for better reporting and recordkeeping of heroin deaths, along with legislation to increase the availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. Jennifer Smith, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said addressing the state’s heroin and prescription drug abuse problem is a priority — and this includes looking at the problems with current reporting systems.
It is difficult to get an accurate read on the scope of the problem due to inconsistencies in the way drug-related overdoses and fatalities are reported in the state. “A perfect example is the year that our organization started (in 2007), it was reported that there were no overdose deaths in Macomb County,” said Linda Davis, a district judge in Clinton Township and president of Families Against Narcotics.

Government

Heroin problems outpace Michigan’s solutions

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
The Capital News Service
LANSING — As Michigan struggles to keep up with its growing heroin and opioid addictions, only one state intervention might be working. Traverse City police in April were able to reverse an overdose using naloxone, a drug that can help restore breathing after a heroin or opioid overdose, said Pamela Lynch, consultant and therapist at Northern Lakes Community Mental Health in Traverse City. This was possible because recent state laws allowed doctors to prescribe the drug to people who can administer it, such as police officers, and not just to those who need it. In the Traverse City case, police revived a driver who had crashed into a stop sign while overdosing on heroin. Officers who were the first responders on the scene pulled the driver from the car and administered a dose of naloxone.

Energy

Energy policy debate is missing the point, advocates say

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Debate over Michigan’s future energy policy continues with proposals aimed at cheap, reliable energy. But environmental advocates say legislators are missing the bigger picture. Climate change has yet to be discussed at any great length, said Mike Berkowitz, the legislative and policy director for the Sierra Club’s Michigan Chapter. Some of the proposed policies are “a true climate disaster” in light of 97 percent of climate scientists agreeing that change is happening and people are driving it through the carbon emissions created largely by burning fossil fuels. Climate change has major implications for public health, Berkowitz said.

Business & Economy

Deaf community lacks interpreters, support, advocates say

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Continued shortages of qualified interpreters and funding mean Michigan’s deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing residents lack access to proper communication and education, and many are unclear of their rights under state law, advocates say. Michigan has a shortage of accessible mental health services, education, employment and legal services for these residents, said Todd Morrison, director of the Michigan Deaf Association. About a million Michigan residents experience hearing loss, and about 90,000 identify as deaf. The majority consider themselves hard of hearing or later-deafened — meaning they were deafened after adolescence, having grown up as part of the hearing population, Morrison said. But the state has only about 500 registered and certified hearing and sign language interpreters to assist this population.

Diversity Issues

Culture, lack of training impede police-community trust, officials say

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Lack of training funds and outdated cultures in smaller departments are among the factors interfering with improved police-community relations in Michigan, state officials say. Michigan is turning out better police recruits than ever, but many are moving into departments that are still ruled by old-fashioned cultures, said Matt Wesaw, executive director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. “We’re training today the best police officer that we’ve ever trained,” said Wesaw, a retired State Police trooper. “I don’t care what academy you go to, we are training the best police officers.”

New police officers typically receive training on how to interact with people of different cultures and counteract their own unconscious biases, Wesaw said. Michigan police officers must complete nearly 600 hours of training, and state troopers need 1,000 hours, said Michigan State Police Public Affairs Director Shanon Banner.

Public Safety

Reformers want fewer 17-year-olds in prison

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan’s tough juvenile justice laws pose a safety risk for teens, produce repeat offenders and can actually make crime worse, reform advocates say. Michigan is one of just nine states to automatically prosecute 17-year-olds as adults, and it has no minimum age at which a person may be sentenced as an adult. Both policies are at odds with national trends and have legislators concerned the state’s approach is outdated. A report released last year by the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency found youth incarcerated in the adult prison system faced an extreme risk of violence, sexual assault and self-harm. The study of state trends from 2003 to 2013 also found the state lacked appropriate rehabilitative services for young people exiting the prison system, making them more violent and more likely to reoffend than young people in the juvenile justice system. New legislation expected to be announced at an early April forum and introduced in the House of Representatives later this spring will take a bipartisan approach to reforming Michigan’s approach to juvenile justice.

Public Safety

Rape DNA backlog clearing, but prosecutions stall

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — The testing of thousands of rape kits discovered in a Detroit Police Department evidence warehouse in 2009 has matched DNA to just over 1,000 people already in the Michigan State Police database, but officials now face the much bigger task of tracking down the offenders. Advocates, state legislators and the State Police say Detroit’s backlog of 11,000 rape kits is expected to be cleared by the end of the the year, but a lack of additional resources has stalled the progress of prosecutions. A shortage of money and manpower has advocates campaigning for more resources from local, state and federal levels. “Getting the kits tested does us no good if we don’t have the resources to find the victims and the perpetrators and get justice,” said Peg Tallet, chief community engagement officer for the Michigan Women’s Foundation and the Detroit initiative Enough SAID (Sexual Assault in Detroit). Enough SAID, which raised nearly $5 million from a mix of private individuals and public companies to help clear the DNA backlog, is now campaigning to raise more money to fund the prosecution efforts.

Business & Economy

Michigan’s energy policy up for grabs

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan’s future in clean energy is up for debate, with 2008 mandates set to expire, widely divergent proposals from government leaders, and environmental groups worried the state could turn back toward fossil fuels. Michigan’s Democrats are proud of the state’s success in shifting to 10 percent renewable energy over the past seven years. They want to increase the renewable goal to 20 percent. Republican legislators are concerned about Michigan’s energy capacity with federal mandates set to shut down a number of coal-fired electrical plants in the coming years. They want to maintain the 10 percent renewable energy requirement and reduce restrictions on meeting state energy goals.

Education

Test confusion causing statewide anxiety

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By CAITLIN McARTHUR
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan is having a hard time figuring out how to assess its grade-school students. Beginning in March, third through eighth and 11th graders will take the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP — the third version of the statewide assessment in as many years. And the Michigan Department of Education says this test is just a stopgap, to be replaced next year. The testing confusion is part of the controversy surrounding the Common Core State Standards, a voluntary set of national standards developed cooperatively by state governments and implemented in 46 states, including Michigan, which adopted them in 2010. Many experts say the Common Core places a welcome value on critical thinking skills.