This weekend, Father's Day will be tough for children with a dad in jail or prison.

More than 200,000 kids in Michigan have had an incarcerated parent at some point in their lives. Statistics show an overwhelming percentage of those parents are fathers.

Tore Price, 48, was released from a Michigan prison last February after serving 17 years for armed robbery, a crime he said was fueled by a struggle with drug addiction. At the time, his son was only 2. Behind bars, Price explained he connected with organizations, including the University of Michigan, to learn how to become an advocate for incarcerated parents.

"(I am) very passionate about helping folks that are still inside, about parents that are still inside," Price stressed. "Because today my son is 13 now, and because people advocated for me, we have a great relationship."

Price has expressed deep remorse for his crimes and added he is grateful to his family and supportive organizations for helping him maintain the father-son relationship while he was incarcerated.

During the pandemic, Michigan's parole board released 33% fewer people from prison and held 22% fewer hearings. There are also racial disparities. African American children are seven times more likely, and Latino children twice as likely, to have an incarcerated parent as their white peers. Yet Price maintained his sense of justice extends beyond the courtroom.

"The restorative justice piece, for me, is today being a better father, and you know, giving back to the ancillary victims -- my mother, you know, my son's mother, and of course, my son -- and just giving back to the community," Price outlined.

Price emphasized his work as an advocate for programs to help loved ones stay connected with family members in prison focuses on people who have children at home and have demonstrated successful rehabilitation.

"I'm a father today, because of the people who sacrificed and the organizations who gave me an opportunity to really meet my son and understand him, and him understand me," Price added.

A controversial new law is set to take effect next week, requiring Hoosiers to upload sensitive documents, including driver's licenses and Social Security numbers, to access adult content online. The measure aims to prevent minors from viewing explicit materials, but it has sparked significant concerns.

Chris Daley, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana, argues the law infringes on constitutional rights by excessively burdening access for Hoosiers.

"You can't do that in a way that impermissibly burdens an adult's access to the same material. And the state can't use a means to limit a minor's access to adult material if there's a less burdensome means available to do so," Daley said.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita supports the law, citing the need to protect children from the psychological impacts of explicit material.

Opponents question the effectiveness of the measure, pointing out that minors could still access adult content through unregulated sites or by using VPNs.

The law also raises concerns about potential censorship of sex education and LGBTQ+ content. Sen. Liz Brown, D-Fort Wayne, chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee when the law made its way through the Statehouse in the 2024 session. She suggests porn sites find it easier to adapt than comply - recently cutting its feed in states such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Utah.

"This isn't about eliminating pornography from the state of Indiana - although I would be OK with this," Brown said. "Pornhub -- and I can't speak for that business -- but they decided that their business model was easier, which would indicate to me that they knew at the time they were operating that they were having minors access their material."

Pornhub and other operators are seeking to block the law, arguing it impinges on adults' free speech and other constitutional rights.


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A new bill that takes effect next Monday will allow incarcerated Mississippians to request an absentee ballot in time for the presidential election on November 5.

House Bill 1406 will impact incarcerated Mississippians who have not been convicted of any of the 23 disenfranchisement crimes to be eligible to participate in the electoral process.

Paloma Wu, deputy director of impact litigation at the Mississippi Center for Justice, said they want all eligible Mississippians to vote because it's better for democracy. She added the Magnolia State has a limited excuse-only absentee ballot, meaning people can vote absentee, but only in specific circumstances.

"Many people who are held in jail and imprisoned in Mississippi are actually eligible to vote. And for one large group of those people, they had no excuse, which would have applied to them," she said.

Wu pointed out that Mississippi has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation, with more than 1,000 people per 100,000 residents behind bars.

Wu noted those who are convicted of one of 23 disenfranchising crimes in a Mississippi court are automatically banned from voting for life. She added the history behind the disfranchising law was to prevent people of color from voting.

"Our list of disenfranchising crimes was created to target primarily descendants of recently enslaved people back in 1890," she explained.

Wu pointed out that her organization, along with other advocacy groups, Mississippi Votes, Black Voters Matter, and Mississippi Center for Re-Entry, collaborated with the state throughout the 2024 legislative session to get House Bill 1406 passed.

Mississippi's pilot work-release program for incarcerated individuals has been extended to three years.

The program allows qualified participants to gain job skills and earn money while serving their sentence.

Wil Ervin, senior vice president of the advocacy group Empower Mississippi, said the existing law has a pilot work-release program operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. It is limited to only 25 participants, but the expansion of Senate Bill 2445 will include more state and regional correctional facilities.

"Obviously, we recognize the importance of an individual having a job both while they're in prison and when they get out," Ervin pointed out. "Having a job is one of the biggest predictors of recidivism for individuals once they're released from prison."

Ervin noted during the legislative session, his organization worked with the bill's author, Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, and House Corrections Chairperson Becky Curry to expand the program.

They decided to expand this program statewide at the end of the session whenever the conference report from the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review was released.

He added the working wage participants will receive is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

"The PEER report that was released last year shows that average wages were $13.35 an hour," Ervin explained. "Under the new bill, 15% goes back to administration of the program; 25% goes towards child support fines, fees, restitution, court costs."

Ervin added 50% goes into a savings account, which will be made available to the individual when they are released. He pointed out another 10% can be used for commissary and incidental expenses while they are in prison.


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