Safety Cannot Be Built on Segregation 

Recently, a letter circulated from the Michigan Corrections Organization (MCO) calling for expanded segregation units and increased use of high security housing across Michigan prisons. The letter frames prolonged isolation and higher security placement as necessary for safety.

I think we can agree on one fundamental truth.
Michigan’s prisons are not safe right now.

But where we differ is in how safety is achieved.

For many years, CPR has worked collaboratively across the corrections system. We engage with families, incarcerated individuals, advocacy organizations, and oversight bodies, including the Michigan Department of Corrections, the Family Advisory Board, and community partners throughout the state. Our work is rooted in listening, especially to those living and working inside Michigan prisons.

We recognize that people experience the system from very different perspectives. Correctional officers, incarcerated individuals, administrators, and families often see the same crisis through entirely different lenses. Those differences do not mean one side does not care about safety. They mean the system is complex, and lasting solutions require more than one viewpoint.

Through the Open MI Door (OMD) campaign, Citizens for Prison Reform has consistently advocated for policies that strengthen safety through transparency, accountability, and rehabilitation, not through expanded isolation. The campaign is grounded in a simple belief: when prisons operate with dignity, fairness, and meaningful opportunities for growth, outcomes improve for everyone inside.

For decades, segregation and restrictive housing have been used within Michigan prisons as responses to behavioral concerns. However, research and lived experience consistently show that prolonged isolation does not resolve instability. Instead, it often intensifies it. Extended time in segregation is associated with increased mental health crises, emotional dysregulation, and impulsive behavior, creating environments that are more volatile rather than safer. 

Calls to expand segregation reflect a belief that safety can be restored primarily through increased isolation. From our perspective, this focus risks overlooking other approaches that support stability, reduce tension, and create opportunities for meaningful culture change inside facilities.

There is far more that can be done to strengthen safety through humane and effective practices.

This is where Rehabilitative Justice becomes essential.

Rehabilitative Justice does not mean the absence of accountability. It means responding to harm in ways that reduce future harm. It focuses on addressing the underlying causes of behavior, trauma, untreated mental illness, substance use, grief, and prolonged deprivation, rather than relying solely on punishment after a crisis occurs.

When individuals are stabilized instead of isolated, behavior improves. Offering access to mental health support, meaningful programming, family connection, educational enrichment, and adequate nutrition creates the strongest foundation for rehabilitation and growth. When these needs are met, individuals are better able to regulate, engage, and participate productively in daily routines. 

These investments support healthier environments for everyone. When people are nourished, supported, and given opportunities to grow, tensions decrease, daily operations become more predictable, and both staff and incarcerated individuals benefit from a system focused on stability and long-term safety. This also helps stabilize facilities and ease the strain created by chronic understaffing.

Rehabilitative Justice benefits correctional officers. Safer units, fewer behavioral emergencies, reduced use of force incidents, and more predictable daily operations directly impact officer wellbeing. A system that prioritizes stabilization over punishment reduces burnout, injury, and the constant cycle of crisis management placed on frontline staff. 

Safety must be built through systems that support regulation, structure, and accountability in ways that actually work. Correctional staff also deserve strong, ongoing training so safety does not rely on isolation as the primary response.

Families across Michigan tell us the same thing again and again. Their loved ones do not return from segregation after periods of prolonged isolation, safer, calmer, or better equipped to function. They return more disconnected, more unstable, and more likely to struggle, which ultimately places additional strain on staff and facilities alike.

We believe Michigan can do better, not by choosing between safety and rehabilitation, but by recognizing that they are inseparable.

Correctional staff deserve safe workplaces. Incarcerated people deserve humane conditions.
Families deserve confidence that Michigan’s correctional system is carrying out its responsibility to protect individuals in its care while supporting rehabilitation and growth.

Solitary confinement has been internationally recognized as causing serious psychological harm. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Mandela Rules, define prolonged solitary confinement as confinement for twenty two hours or more per day without meaningful human contact lasting longer than fifteen consecutive days and recognize this practice as torture or cruel and inhumane punishment.

Extended isolation has been shown to increase anxiety, depression, hallucinations, emotional dysregulation, and risk of self-harm. These effects do not promote accountability or stability, they erode them.

If rehabilitation is the goal in Michigan prisons, then a fundamental question must be asked:

How can torture play a role in one’s rehabilitation?

A system cannot claim to support growth while relying on practices that deteriorate mental health and diminish a person’s capacity to engage in change. Rehabilitation requires stability, connection, and the ability to reflect and learn, all of which are undermined by prolonged isolation.

True safety cannot be built through harm. It must be built through practices that strengthen, rather than break, the human capacity for accountability and growth.

That is the path toward safer prisons for everyone.