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In 2012, during a meeting with county officials and a Securus representative, Swanson said the system needed to be “a revenue generating machine.”

But in a recent interview with Holt, Swanson — who became the county’s sheriff in 2019 — said he now thinks that his past stance was wrong.

“The person I am today is not the same person I was in 2012, 2014,” Swanson told Holt.

He said George Floyd’s murder began to shift his outlook.

“It was a moment that was pivotal in my life not just as the sheriff, as Chris Swanson.”

In 2020, as people took to the streets across the nation, a video of Swanson went viral as he addressed the protesters. "I want to make this a parade, not a protest,” he told the crowd, and then marched with them.

Since then, said Swanson — who was elected to a full term as sheriff in 2020 and is running for re-election this fall — his perspective has focused more on helping people, instead of just jailing them.

He said the lawsuit has reinforced his new point of view. He said he has come to view the revenue from the video visits as money that comes not from the detainees, but “from their families. And so you’re penalizing people. And I see that now.”

Even though Genesee County lawyers are fighting to have the suit dismissed, Swanson told Holt that he is reintroducing in-person visits starting this summer, calling it “Operation Restoration.” The first Saturday of each month will be for children under 12, and by August a different Saturday will be for people 13 and older.

A judge will now decide whether the case against him and the county will move forward. Whatever the court decides, Swanson said, his mind is already made up.

“This initiative is about restoring families, breaking generational cycles of incarceration and poverty, and instilling hope,” he asserts. “We’re finally aligning with what’s right.”

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“Right now, we’re just playing some basketball. I brought some smacks out of him to eat. Then we’re going to go back and color just have fun and enjoy time with kids,” said Blake Taylor, an inmate at the Genesee County Jail.

Taylor said that he usually gets to see his kids a few times a month, but thanks to Operation Restoration, he gets to spend an hour playing with his boys just like they would do at home.

“It’s wonderful. It’s really wonderful,” Taylor said. “We get more time to spend with our children. We’ve got guys that have been here multiple years that haven’t seen their children in a long time. It’s rare to get the opportunity for us to be with our children.”

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson tells TV5 that the driving force behind this program is keeping families together.

“I understand family connection. I understand that if you can change the mindset and the culture of an individual then it changes their decision making,” Swanson said. “When I see dads on the floor playing Tic-Tac-Toe and putting puzzles together, and they’re clean; they’re dry; they’re safe; that really is the breakdown of this whole thing.”

TV5 talked to incarcerated parents who said that they’re simply grateful for more opportunities to see their kids with more in-person visits now guaranteed on the first Saturday of every month.

“It’s been wonderful,” said inmate Darequis Williams. “It made my day. At first I was locked in my cell, all depressed until I saw him. Brought a tear to my eye.”

I particularly like the artful construction of that he said he would end the ban, but his lawyers (i.e. the county's lawyers, presumably) are arguing in court something different (maybe as part of the effort to get the suit dismissed). So they're implying that he hasn't actually ended the policy, but wording it in such a way that it's clear they're dodging around the fact that he has, now that (a) he's the boss and is fully in charge of it (b) he's changed his mind after having seen 10+ years of criminal justice system misconduct getting the spotlight.

So yeah TL;DR it's some bullshit; they're taking a good guy and trying to make him into a bad guy, so that you'll let the actual bad guys come to power, and derail the effort to continue reforming the system and making it better. I sorta knew it but it was worth looking into the details a little bit.