(MPRN-Lansing) State lawmakers have begun hearings on bipartisan bills meant to help 17 year olds avoid serving time in adult prisons.
17 year olds would no longer be automatically treated as adults in Michigan’s court system under the 20-bill package. Supporters say the prison system is not equipped to rehabilitate young people.
“It is important that we treat 17 year olds like the children they are, not the adults we fear they will become,”
said Jennifer Pilette, who served for 16 years as a referee on the juvenile court bench in Wayne County.
Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly chaired Gov. Rick Snyder’s Committee on Juvenile Justice. She told the state House Criminal Justice Committee that it’s wrong to treat 17 year olds as adults.
“And the reason we can’t do that is because we know that their brains are different,”
said Kelly, referring to studies that looked at brain development in teenagers and young adults.
“They are reactive. They don’t make decisions in the same way.”
People under 18 could still be charged as adults for violent crimes such as murder. Some counties worry the bills would shift costs onto the juvenile justice programs they oversee. The legislation includes some measures to help boost state support for those programs.
But some counties want the state to cover the total cost of the measures. Supporters say regardless of the cost, ending the practice of treating 17 year old offenders as adults is the right thing to do.
“We’re going back in time and telling the legislatures of the 1990s that they were wrong,”
said state Rep. Harvey Santana (D-Detroit), who is spearheading the legislation.
“Locking them up and throwing away the key and their getting-tough-on-crime policies have proven that they just don’t work.”
It’s not clear if or when the committee will hold a vote on the legislation. Santana says he does not expect a full House vote before the end of the year.
