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Northern Michigan Judge Discusses Governor’s Executive Order on Jails Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

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Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order to try and prevent the spread of coronavirus in Michigan’s jails.

Governor Whitmer’s executive order gives judges like Kevin Elsenheimer more flexibility when it comes to releasing inmates who have been determined to not pose a threat to the public or may be vulnerable to the coronavirus.

“Well the governor’s executive order did a few things. One, is to ask us at the local level to look at prisoner lists certainly, but it also gets into things like whether or not we can send people to prison right now, whether or not we can bring people from prison to court hear in northern Michigan,” said Judge Elsenheimer of the 13th Circuit Court.

The order also asks counties to take a look at who should be coming in to jails right now.

“It’s a priority issue. And we are for example when it comes to collections warrants, we are not pursuing those right now, and we don’t want those people put in jail. But if you commit a crime and you go through the legal process and you’re found guilty by a jury or you admit guilt, you’re going to be sentenced,” said Judge Elsenheimer.

And Judge Elsenheimer says any releases will be looked at case by case.

“I think I can say every judge has released one or two people who qualify. For example I released someone that was very near to the end of their sentence. I determined that they weren’t somebody who was going to violate again and someone that could be released safely. The people need to know that our expectation is that people who belong in jail are going to be in jail,” said Judge Elsenheimer.

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