Christy Suarez: “Have you made Washtenaw County better than it was when you came into it?”
Eli Savit: “I certainly hope so. It’s what we try to do every day.”
How does Washtenaw County’s Prosecuting Attorney, Eli Savit, improve the lives of those in our community?
Eli Savit is a Washtenaw County native. He graduated from Pioneer High School and then went to Kalamazoo College. He started his career as a public school teacher, teaching special education and general education eighth grade American history. Later, he returned to Ann Arbor to attend the University of Michigan Law School.
Eli Savit was selected for the most prestigious position of law clerk for the United States Supreme Court. He clerked for both Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor. After his time at the Supreme Court, he returned to Michigan to work as the City of Detroit’s senior legal counsel. Throughout his time in Detroit, he fought for criminal justice reform. Savit became a nationally known attorney for his work in public-interest cases.
When the opportunity arose, Savit ran for the position of Washtenaw County’s Prosecuting Attorney. He won and replaced his predecessor, who held the position for twenty-eight years. The prosecutor is the most powerful position in the criminal judicial system as they decide who to prosecute and send to court and they determine which laws are enforced.
Now, Eli Savit actively fights to build a fair judicial system from the inside with the power that his position provides. He is a passionate community member who cares deeply about those around him. His abundant empathy for others shines through in his time as Washtenaw County’s Prosecuting Attorney and that is clear by the decisions he has made about which laws to enforce and how much punishment should be received.
Unique Human Stories
The morning of Eli Savit’s first day in office, January 1, 2021, he announced the removal of zero tolerance policies.
Eli Savit: “Every case that comes into our system involves a unique human story.”
Zero tolerance policies do not allow for prosecutors to assess each case as its own story with its own circumstances. However, this is time-consuming work. It means that his team must work harder and longer on their cases so that they can treat every case individually and with compassion.
Removing zero tolerance policies allows for a more empathetic approach within the law.
Eli Savit: “There was a case out of this office before I was here… there was a woman who was transitioning and she was, as many people who are transitioning are, depressed. And she told her partner I am going to drive down to the park with this gun and kill myself. The partner calls the police to get help. The police respond and find her in the park. They are able to do their job and to make sure she does not harm herself. But she had a gun in the car and she didn’t have a concealed pistol license which makes it carrying a concealed weapon which is a felony. It gets submitted to this office and with [the previous prosecutors stance on] zero tolerance for gun crime, she’s charged with a felony. Now what’s the next person going to do if the story gets out? They have a loved one that’s potentially going to harm themselves. Are we really doing well in our community by putting people in a position where they have to choose between calling for help, trying to prevent their loved one from harming themselves, but facing the risk that they might get a felony record, or not calling to avoid the criminal consequences and hoping that they won’t go through and harm themselves. That’s not just to bring those charges to that case.”
Zero tolerance policies may sound good to voters but such policies can have serious consequences and may result in being worse for the community.
Letting Kids be Kids
In Savit’s time in office, he has worked to build a stronger community that offers second chances to its citizens.
How does Eli Savit do this? He does it by breaking the school to prison pipeline.
Since January 2021, the Prosecutor’s Office no longer files juvenile delinquency petitions against minors for status-based offenses. These include truancy, tobacco or vaping-related offenses, marijuana-related offenses, or disorderly conduct offenses.
The Prosecutor’s Office chose to leave punishment up to the schools and the parents of the minor for status-based offenses.
Eli Savit: “Young people are going to make mistakes.”
By breaking the school to prison pipeline Eli Savit ensures that members of this community have chances they did not have previously. By not sending minors to juvenile detention for status-based offenses, he allows them to continue an education, participate in sports or arts, and continue building relationships with friends and families which are crucial for development. Savit allows kids to be kids.
Rehabilitation
Eli Savit: “The criminal system needs to do a much better job of promoting rehabilitation, not pursuing punishment for the sake of punishment.”
244,000 Americans are annually sent to prison for drug related crimes. After they serve time, they emerge from prison with a felony record that follows them through life. In addition to this, they aren’t often provided competent help in facing their drug addiction.
Eli Savit chose to reform the courts in Washtenaw County by implementing problem solving courts in Washtenaw County where people get help to turn their lives around, so they are less likely to commit crimes in the future. Savit understands that sending individuals with drug related crimes to jail won’t fix their addiction and can lead to returning to crime.
Eli Savit prompts rehabilitation for community members by providing “diversion and deflection programs, problem solving courts and probation programs that run in Washtenaw County Courts”. These programs include “the Drug Treatment Court in the 22nd Circuit Court, Veterans Treatment Court, Sobriety Court, and Mental Health Court in the 15th District Court, among others”.
These programs require hard work to complete, and the health and safety of the participants is of utmost importance. Unlike Savit’s predecessor, Savit allows the Prosecutor’s Office to dismiss a case entirely upon successful completion of a treatment court program.
Eli Savit: “If someone has done the hard work, done everything we’ve asked them to do, the reward should be that you don’t have a criminal record.”
This reward is great. It provides citizens opportunities to take back their life. To not have a criminal record follow them forever.
Eli Savit: “It’s really about getting people the help they need. And if you’ve done the hard work, what are we doing giving them a criminal record? You’ve done everything we’ve asked for and got back on track. I want you to go forward without a criminal record.”
These court-appointed programs promote rehabilitation which is crucial for our community. It allows community members to rejoin society and provide meaning for their lives.
Eli Savit: “These are great programs. They’ve been studied and the recidivism rate is significantly lower for these programs than the traditional legal system.”
Community Programs
Eli Savit: “Now we’re in the exciting part which is building with our community partners and building those alternatives that will set people up for success.”
These programs rely on many different parts of the community to ensure it happens. Prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, and service providers all need to work together to set a person up with a treatment support plan instead of incarcerating them.
Eli Savit: “We can say all day that the criminal legal system isn’t the answer [to everything]. We can’t just throw up our hands and say we’re not going to do anything about it. We have a responsibility to build out with community partners the alternatives.”
Eli Savit welcomes this time consuming task and is always working to build more programs to further make the judicial system as equitable as possible.
Eli Savit: “We just got a $750,000 grant from the U.S Department of Justice in partnership with the Courts and with Corner Health over in Ypsilanti. The program we’re putting into place with this grant money is a diversion program for young primary caregivers. Because we see people coming into this system with responsibilities to others that are young, that frankly don’t have a lot of resources and help. Often that can lead to substance use and lead to coming in on retail theft and stuff like that. And we can do so much better if we get them the actual stuff and resources that they need rather than sending them to jail or putting them on onerous probation terms. The way this program will work is if you are a primary caregiver, and you come in through the justice system, and it’s not something that poses a safety risk or a risk to the family, we’ll set you up with the diversion program where you will get access to the wide variety of services that Corner Health has in an individualized way. You and your family will have access to a primary care physician. The physical health needs which are often co-occurring with the other stuff can be taken care of. Additionally, Pregnant people get connected to an OBGYN. [Through this program], you are set up with a plan and if you do and complete the plan and you come out the other side better for it, the charges will be totally dismissed, you don’t even have to plea guilty to a crime.”
Currently, Savit is working on a major initiative that would connect returning citizens to jobs in Southeast Michigan or Northern Ohio with good paying union jobs.
Active Community Member
It is crucial for a prosecutor to be empathetic as it leads to better results in difficult situations. Being empathetic allows the prosecutor to fairly assess cases and not to judge a person when that person may be at their worst point in their life. Eli Savit’s empathy allowed him to realize that zero tolerance policies were not the answer and that problem-solving courts focusing on rehabilitation is what the community needs. Savit gains empathy for those within his community by being an exceptional community member.
Eli Savit: “If all you see out of your community is the bad stuff that happens, and that is the job, it can lead you to be more suspicious of people, to view people of just that snapshot in time, and I think it can cause people that are in my job for a while to harden. What I try to do is keep perspective and be out there in the community and go to community events and see the community at its best.”
Savit takes on roles within the community by volunteering and attending community events. By participating in the community, he gets to see and understand the needs of the people that he works to protect.
Eli Savit: “The thing that I love doing best in this job is our expungement fairs. Where we affirmatively assist people that are eligible for expungement under the law to clear their old criminal records. And it’s a wonderful experience. We have been able to help over 800 people so far. It’s really beneficial for people looking for jobs or housing.”
At these expungement fairs, Savit gets to meet people that crossed his predecessor’s desk and were prosecuted. He can see that people do change, which offers him hope that inspires him to continue working empathetically to solve problems and improve lives.
Eli Savit: “I remember one guy, he had a job, he stayed out of trouble for over a decade, he had a young family. The reason he wanted expungement was he said he was running for PTA of my kids’ school, and I want to be more involved. But I don’t want people digging up my criminal past, that’s not who I am anymore. You see this guy. Now he’s a dad, he’s done everything we’ve asked for. And that’s so important to keep in perspective that people do change that they are not just defined forever as their worst moment. And that really grounds me and allows me to maintain that ideology that I ran on.”
Educating the Future
In addition to his great community service work, Savit is also inspiring the future generation of lawmakers and law enforcers. He attends talks and presentations with clubs such as Students 4 Decarceration, which is a group that works to end inequities in the criminal justice system. Savit spreads his knowledge and passion for equitability within the judicial system, and gives hope that in the future, the judicial system will be fair for all.
Conclusion
Eli Savit is the exception to many other prosecutors. Instead of punishment for punishment’s sake, he approaches each case as a unique human story. This allows him to treat individuals with empathy.
Savit gives second chances for people so they can rejoin their community. He believes that incarcerating individuals for drug related crimes that often stem from addiction or mental health problems, is not the solution. He does so by his initiation of problem-solving courts that send individuals to programs designed to tackle mental health or drug use rehabilitation.
Eli Savit: “By taking a more compassionate approach with some of the programs we have, I know we’ve impacted people’s lives for the better. And I’m hopeful that those effects have ripple effects that spread out across the county.”
Savit is an active community member. He strives to see the good in everyone around him by stepping out of the office and being with the people he strives to protect.
When he was running for office, his campaign promised to break down racial and socioeconomic inequality within Washtenaw County. Within the first couple of days, he lived up to his promise of ending cash bail and creating a greater equity in pretrial detention.
Eli Savit has been Washtenaw County’s Attorney Prosecutor for two years. These two years have done wonders to change our judicial system for the better. He creates ripple effects that will impact our judicial system years to come. He does so by showing empathy within the law, making good on promises to bring equitably for all, or teaching inspiring lawmakers and law enforcers how to fix our judicial system.
Since Eli Savit’s election I have grown hopeful that change can happen. I am hopeful that, one day, the U.S. criminal judicial system will focus on reform and rehabilitation. I am hopeful that, one day, the U.S. criminal judicial system will treat all its citizens fairly.
Until that day, I will continue to watch as Eli Savit makes our community a better place, while I wait to see the inevitable impact he’ll have on the world when he branches out from Washtenaw County, Michigan.
Savit, Eli. Personal Interview. 27 January 2023
Link to Photo Citations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UeVQutN12Db6UMA_Gf_e7jKhxogDhxvjkn-CYxrUank/edit?usp=sharing
