The Juvenile Justice Initiative is a newer CSP research project that began in 2023 as an outgrowth of the Detroit-based work of the Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab and collaborations with the ACLU of Michigan’s Juvenile Life Without Parole program, the Michigan Center for Youth Justice, and the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office (SADO). Professor Matt Lassiter, the research director of the Juvenile Justice Initiative, launched this project after working with SADO as an expert witness in the resentencing hearings of several “juvenile lifers” from Flint and Pontiac, pursuant to the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life without parole sentences for children age 17 and younger were unconstitutional. Barakah (Edward Sanders), a former juvenile lifer and director of Alternative Sentencing & Reentry Solutions, is a consultant to the Juvenile Justice Initiative.
The Juvenile Justice Initiative is in the final stages of completing a website exhibit, “Juvenile Life Without Parole in Michigan,” that investigates the history of the get-tough laws in 1988 and 1996 that greatly expanded the number of children waived and convicted in the adult system. The website also examines the general patterns and profiles a number of individual stories of the 363 individuals–predominantly Black, male, and from Detroit or other urban centers–serving JLWOP in Michigan at the time of the Miller v. Alabama decision. The Juvenile Justice Initiative has also conducted interviews with around 30 former juvenile lifers for a forthcoming website, sponsored panel discussions and other events on the UM campus, and published several investigative reports based on the ongoing research (found below). Around 30 undergraduate and graduate students have worked on these projects so far.
Research Publications
Engler’s “Punk Prison”: A Political Stunt. This multimedia investigative report, authored by Julia Frykman for the Juvenile Justice Initiative, examines the creation, operation, and closure of the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility, a maximum security facility opened in 1999 as the state’s first privately operated prison. Governor John Engler championed the so-called “Punk Prison” during his re-election campaign as a “tough-on-crime” stunt and as part of a plan to greatly increase the prosecution and incarceration of juveniles ages 14-17 in the adult system. Advocacy groups challenged the media sensationalism and political hype about an alleged youth crime wave and ultimately filed a lawsuit that exposed systemic discrimination and abuse inside the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility. This report draws on archival records, legal documents, and interviews with key actors to uncover how Engler’s “Punk Prison” disproportionately targeted youth of color, deprived often low-level offenders of rehabilitative services and basic rights, squandered public resources, and ultimately closed its doors in 2005 under sustained pressure from juvenile justice advocates.
Girls Incarcerated for Life in Michigan. This report, by Claire Smallwood and Quinn Engel for the Juvenile Justice Initiative, examines the unique challenges faced by the 12 females (out of 363 children total) who were sentenced to juvenile life without parole in the state of Michigan between the 1980s and the early 2000s. These challenges parallel the patterns that girls encounter within the criminal and juvenile legal systems more broadly. “Girls Incarcerated for Life in Michigan” explores a selection of these trends, including issues of criminal responsibility, involvement of adult male co-defendants, and domestic violence and coercion. This research seeks to document and examine these patterns while balancing the difficult, sensitive nature of the experiences of these girls and now-women.
Panel Discussions/Public Events
Juvenile Life Without Parole in Michigan (Oct. 23, 2023). Featuring Deborah LaBelle (Director, ACLU Juvenile Life Without Parole Initiative); Jose Burgos (Michigan Campaign Coordinator, Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth); Barakah/Edward Sanders (Founder, Alternative Sentencing & Reentry Solutions); Jeff Irwin (State Senator, Michigan Legislature); Kimberly Thomas (Co-Director, Juvenile Justice Clinic, UM Law School). Moderated by Matt Lassiter, Department of History
Transforming Juvenile Justice (March 29, 2025). Featured panelists: Jason Smith (Executive Director, Michigan Center for Youth Justice), Jose Burgos (Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth), Jeff Irwin (State Senator, Michigan Legislature). Moderators: Jackie Lauer and Kate Markey (PhD Students, University of Michigan).Co-organized with the Michigan Center for Youth Justice and part of the Carceral State Project’s 2025 Symposium, “The Landscape of Criminal Legal Reform in Michigan” (click here for the full symposium)
