INSIDE MICHIGAN/ A humane public-data project
142,592 · records  ·  520,719 · sentences
VOL. I · NO. 01 · A PUBLIC-DATA PROJECT

People,
not offenders.

Michigan public corrections records describe 142,592 lives behind a difficult legacy web form. Inside Michigan turns that public record into a humane research tool. Every figure you see comes from the public record. Every design choice is ours to make.

Updated 22 April 2026Coverage All 83 Michigan countiesSample 142,592 individuals · 520,719 sentencesPhotos Withheld by default
§ 01DashboardThe numbers at a glance§ 02LookupFind an individual record§ 03ReformThe confrontational view§ 04FlowPopulation flows & reform metrics§ 05MovementsAggregate facility changes§ 06Ask the DataAI over 520,719 sentences§ 07SupportKeep the work going
§ 03 — The Reform Case

The numbers are not abstract.

Six facts drawn directly from the data, in the largest possible type. Each one is a policy question.

ERD Accountability Clock

12,962 years* past first parole eligibility

Every second added here is human time the institution must be able to explain.

* Local mirror scraped 03/05/2026-05/29/2026; ERD/PBJD is first parole eligibility, not guaranteed release.

12,962 years9 months17 days18 hours47 minutes42 seconds
5,150people currently marked Prisoner past ERD
0-6 months1,660
6-12 months630
1-2 years816
2-5 years1,238
5+ years806
Read the argument

* Calculation uses the local MDOC public-record mirror scraped 03/05/2026-05/29/2026, evaluated 05/31/2026. ERD/PBJD means earliest parole eligibility / Parole Board jurisdiction, not guaranteed release.

Fact 01 · Public-record mirror
74.7%
of convictions were plea bargains
388,843 of 520,719 — a system that almost never goes to trial.
Fact 02 · Public-record mirror
43.8%
of the system is Black
Black Michiganders are 13.7% of the state population — a 3.2× overrepresentation.
Fact 03 · Public-record mirror
32,973
serving life or 40+ years
Roughly one in 16 of every maximum sentence on record.
Fact 04 · Public-record mirror
23.8%
of all sentences come from Wayne County
Detroit's metro drives a disproportionate share of every data point in this set.
Fact 05 · Public-record mirror
2.7×
growth in sentencing from the 90s to the 2000s
112,355 sentences in the 2000s vs. 40,931 in the 1990s.
Fact 06 · Public-record mirror
17.5%
of sentences are drug-related
90,942 convictions tied to narcotics, meth, and delivery charges.
§ 03b — Human scale

31,849 people
are incarcerated in Michigan right now.

The grid below is a visual proxy — one tile per ~38 incarcerated individuals. Each row is roughly a thousand people. Unfocus your eyes; the outline of Lower Michigan appears in the dark tiles.

31,849 incarcerated
1,600 tiles · ~55 people each
shape: Lower Peninsula
Hover any tile to zoom. Each is anonymized — no real photos are shown here.Source · public-record mirror, Apr 2026