Senator Santana asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal.
The motion prevailed.
Senator Santana’s statement is as follows:
I just want to say that this package of bills here is also a part of all of the hard work and dedication by the Pretrial Incarceration Task Force that we’ve had over the past two years.
These bills will help support individuals who have misdemeanors on their record and changing some of the misdemeanors in our statutes to citations and also changing some of our felony violations that did not make sense to be felonies to misdemeanors. I want to say that our House members as well as our Senate members here who worked on this package of bills have worked really hard and dedicated their time to making sure that this legislation was not only meaningful for the people who are impacted by it, but also meaningful for our state.
We are one of the states that unfortunately incarcerates a lot of people pre-trial, where they don’t have the opportunity to have their fair day in court but still be out of being in jail prior to that timeframe. A lot of people—because they can’t make bail or they couldn’t pay their ticket—they’re sitting in jail and not being able to take care or sustain their families during that time. I’m really excited that this legislation is passing today on this floor in the Senate because it’s so meaningful to a lot of Michiganders here in our state.
I want to say thank you all in advance for leading on this package of bills by supporting this package.
The following bill was read a third time:
House Bill No. 5855, entitled
A bill to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled “The revised school code,” by amending sections 1599 and 1809 (MCL 380.1599 and 380.1809), section 1809 as added by 1995 PA 96.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: