No, Abdul El-Sayed Didn't Call for Abolishing Prisons and Freeing Violent Criminals

The 4,000-prisoner figure comes from El-Sayed's 2018 campaign for governor, not his current Senate run ^[1]. That plan proposed capping sentences for people convicted as minors — a maximum of 25 years, a minimum of 10 — and would have required legislative approval. It also called for reviewing nearly 4,000 prisoners sentenced before age 18 and commuting sentences only for those a parole board deemed "low risk"; the ad omits the "low risk" qualifier ^[1]. Under that 2018 plan, Osborne's sentence could have ended in 2024 ^[1].

The "emptying prisons" line traces to an August 2020 webinar, during the height of COVID-19, where El-Sayed was one of three panelists discussing prison releases to curb virus transmission among elderly and infirm inmates; he called decarceration "critical" more broadly, but did not call to empty or abolish prisons even when another speaker raised abolition ^[2]. The other two panelists, both sentenced as juveniles, had already been released before the event — one said he'd never met El-Sayed and has no connection to the campaign ^[1].

On policing, El-Sayed did back "investing less in police" in a June 2020 radio interview during the post-George Floyd debate, and discussed shifting resources "away from punishment and toward public welfare" in a 2024 podcast ^[2]. But his current 2026 position is different: he says he wants to fund police recruitment, retention and retirement, opposes private prisons, and supports mental health and job training for people leaving incarceration ^[2]. His campaign spokesperson called the abolition claim "laughable," saying El-Sayed "has never called for the blanket release" of prisoners ^[1].

The claim is being driven by the Republican side of a competitive Michigan Senate race: Mike Rogers' own campaign post and the Senate Leadership Fund's television ad, both using past-tense remarks and reusing a since-superseded 2018 policy plan as though it describes El-Sayed's current platform ^[1][2]. Fox News and the Washington Free Beacon amplified the 2020 webinar comments without the surrounding context that fact-checkers later added ^[3].

MISLEADING. El-Sayed has, at points in 2018, 2020 and 2024, backed reducing incarceration and reallocating police funding — that part is true ^[1][2][3]. But no fact-checker who examined the record found evidence he called for abolishing prisons or releasing violent criminals wholesale ^[3]; PolitiFact rated the closely related Rogers claim "Mostly False" for ignoring his current, more moderate positions on police funding and prison policy ^[2]. The attacks take real past statements and strip the qualifiers, the dates, and the context that separate them from the sweeping "abolish prisons, free the violent" framing being sold to voters.