After years of work, it looks like bills to raise the age of the juvenile court’s jurisdiction from 17 to 18 years old have a straight path to the governor’s desk.
This is due in large part to a compromise reached between the counties and state lawmakers.
The big point of contention over the last couple years was money. Most agreed that Michigan should join a vast majority of other states in treating 17-year-olds in the criminal justice system as juveniles. But who would pay for the increase in juveniles in the system?
After a lot of work – a deal was struck.
Meghann Keit is with the Michigan Association of Counties.
“We got there and we were able to produce a good product to make sure that the funding was available and adequate and we could implement this policy as effectively as possible.”
If passed, the state would pick up the costs for the first three years of the change, and then they’d reevaluate.