It has been two and half years since the Raise the Age bills were introduced to the Michigan legislature, and finally compromise was reached last Wednesday when the bills passed out of committee.
“This package has ironed out all the differences between the house and senate versions and so the expectation is that within the next week or two this will be passed entirely and sent to the Governor’s desk for her signature.”
That’s Alex Rossman from the Michigan League for Public Policy – one of the central organizations advocating to end automatic prosecution of 17 years olds as adults in Michigan.
Currently, when a 17 year old is tried as an adult in Michigan, the state covers 100 percent of the cost but when a young person goes through the juvenile justice system 50 percent of the cost falls on the county – but this new bill will alleviate some of that initial cost.
“So the funding agreement on that is that the state is going to pay for 100% of the cost for managing 17 year olds for three years and then going to reevaluate how that’s been working both from the state’s perspective and the county’s perspective.”
If this bipartisan bill passes, it would not be effective until October 2021 in order to give local county facilities enough time to prepare to house 17 year olds.
Michelle Jokisch Polo, WGVU News.
