March 4, 2026
RE: Solutions for Women’s Huron Valley from Women Serving Long Time at WHV
To whom this may concern:
We, the Women residing at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, would like to express our most humble gratitude to everyone responsible for ensuring that the concerns which were presented at the recent House Oversight Committee Hearing about our prison were taken into account for paving a path forward toward healing and restoration.
In this same spirit of gratitude, and with the wisdom of lived experience from inside this prison, we have listed out suggestions for solutions that we have titled the Women's Clemency and Resentencing Initiative. This plan of actionable solutions will ultimately result in the reform and release of approximately 800 women over a three-year period. By reducing the population by half, this will reduce strain on the water, electricity, plumbing, sewage and waste systems and allow for necessary remodeling towards a single cell occupancy facility to begin immediately. Reducing the population by half will also allow for accommodating the programming and educational needs of the remaining population to ensure pathways to wellness, healing, reform and release are met with focuses on safety as well as fiscal responsibility
We know that the implementation of this three Phase initiative is the most viable solution because the areas of concern which need to be addressed to ensure that WHV is habitable and suitable for creating pathways toward wellness, transformation and reunification can and will be corrected once the facility returns to the single cell occupancy that the lay out design was intended for.
Each recommended solutions’ phase will create less people in the prison which will open possibilities for prison administrators to move towards making whatever repairs and enhancements that need to happen area by area, if those repairs are warranted. Fewer people creates less physical demand on the infrastructure and less stressors for all.
Phase I would begin today and would expedite the immediate review of the first 100+ women whose sentences we are asking Governor Whitmer to commute before leaving office at the end of this year.
This list of 100+ people consists of women who have exhibited phenomenal
transformative participation in and completion of Educational and Program opportunities offered within and beyond WHV (this list was provided to the governor and lawmakers and is not attached to this open letter for the public). These women have not only demonstrated a willingness to learn, grow, heal and transform themselves beyond the circumstances which led them to incarceration, but they have also used the skills and lessons learned to make meaningful contributions to every aspect of living within these conditions of confinement. Whether facilitating groups, leading wellness classes, initiating positive community building activities, providing assistance to staff to make their jobs easier, or simply striving to model the type of behavior that makes for a less stressful living and working environment that others can emulate; each of these women have proven that they will be reliable and valuable contributing members of society upon release.
The list reflects women who fall within a variety of categories indicative of their readiness for release. These categories include:
● The longest serving women who were sentenced to life with or without parole;
● Women who were sentenced to a number of long and indeterminate years who have served over half of their sentence.
● Women who were between the ages of 18-25 at the time of their offense whom have not begun the process towards resentencing at this time and/or did not fall within the age range currently recognized by the Michigan Courts as requiring resentencing under the scientific assertion that the human brain has not reached a developmental stage acceptable for receiving a life sentence for crime committed prior to turning 26.
● This list also includes women who did not have a death in their case and have other mitigating circumstances such as but not limited to having served in the armed forces during war and surviving domestic violence, that would sustain an argument for receiving the merciful act of clemency in their cases.
● Women with release dates in the next two years are not included in this list.
Phase I allows the Governor to pilot fair and transparent processes that are rooted in rectifying not only the conditions at the prison but also relationships and communities. This expedited release initiative would allow the state to begin the process of reducing full time equivalents (FTEs) throughout the Valley and converting inside officer jobs, that will no longer be needed, to community-based jobs dedicated to supporting women as they return to their communities and loved ones.
Phase I would also be a time to develop needs-based assessments that are connected to feedback and modeling from the first 100+ women who are returning home. This initial phase is a time to evaluate and learn while also putting in place the elements needed for phases II and III.
Phase I also includes more robust development of programming, including Moms Empowering Moms (MEMS), these efforts support women in staying deeply connected to their children (minors, emerging adults, and adults) while still at Women’s Huron Valley. Moms Empowering Moms is working to help women stay connected to their children in real and meaningful ways. Women inside agree that they need to be connected to their children every day and all year, not just one day with God. Parenting is a lifetime commitment. Being a mom is a lifetime commitment. It requires support to stay connected. MEMS is already piloted and there is a parenting program at Huron Valley; with less women in the prison, enhanced parenting programs can be implemented and continued.
Phase II would go into effect in January of 2027. The next governor would demonstrate commitment to continuing the work started in Phase I. By 2027, a presumption of commutation would be in full effect, and the parole board (or a new review board) would have an entire contingent of members dedicated to reviewing women’s cases with a goal towards release. In addition to Executive Clemency, the legislature should consider, hopefully pass, and enact a Survivor’s Justice Act (SJA) by the end of 2026. This means that throughout 2027, women who qualify for SJA would be able to apply to their sentencing judges for resentencing, potentially be resentenced and then released via parole or discharge, accordingly. By the end of 2027 another 350 women would be released through Clemency, SJA, and other forms of resentencing.
In the middle of Phase I, by August of 2026, Healing Homes Farm (HHF) will be launched, and two to three long serving women will be working in collaboration with multiple stakeholders to further develop programming and services to be offered at HHF This project is being developed to provide supportive housing with wrap around services and peer led programming for long serving women returning to the community. HHF is a project founded in understanding the power of transformation, the importance of staying connected to loved ones and community, the love in liberation, and the possibility of always healing. By the end of 2027, Healing Homes will have space for 10-15 returning women (a main house and 6-8 Tiny Houses). Throughout the creation of this love centered project, collaborators will document the development of the project to work on replicating in other strategic locations throughout MI.
Phase III includes a full revamping of how the women’s prison is managed. With less women inside and continued decarceration efforts through 2028 and 2029—leading to another 350 women released for a total of 800 women—the prison can shift to a single cell occupancy prison with the need for way less staff and more access to existing educational and healing programs for the women who remain inside while adding new and innovative transformational program and education opportunities. The impossible work of recruiting officers and in prison health care workers will change to recruiting (or transitioning the no longer needed in-prison staff positions to) social workers, counselors, employment and wellness coaches, and peer leaders to help women continue to reintegrate into their communities and to thrive in healing, restoration, and love.
In conclusion, thank you for the opportunity to be heard and for taking seriously the solutions we are presenting. Repair work is an ongoing process and you can be sure that we are all moving forward together in gratitude.
All of this is possible. The time is now.
Respectively submitted,
Women living in Huron Valley
For questions or more information, contact Tatiana Fusari 622951, President of National Lifers at WHV, or Katherine Wright 426554, Education Clerk at WHV. All women listed below and Tatiana and Katherine can be contacted through www.jpay.com For more information from a free-world supporter, contact LaWanda Hollister at lhollister@afsc.org