Editorial: Raising the age
The United States is the only nation that sets the age of criminal court jurisdiction under 18, but increasingly states are raising the age. Some lawmakers in Lansing would like Michigan to join the movement. We support their initiative.
A package of more than 20 bills in the Legislature would raise the age of juveniles who are treated as adults to 18. Michigan is one of just nine states that still tries 17-year-old defendants as adults.
The bipartisan package includes proposals to:
- Raise the age, from 16 to 17, for those who would be subject to juvenile code disposition for violations of personal protection orders.
- Require those up to 17 years old charged with a crime to be transferred to the family division of Circuit Court.
- Change the criteria for judges in the automatic sentencing of juveniles as adults for certain crimes.
- Prohibit juvenile inmates from being housed among adult prisoners.
The conservative Detroit News editorial board came out in support of the measure, calling it "an important step in the quest to reform Michigan’s criminal justice system.”
Most experts agree, and many argue that states should go even further.
The juvenile justice system is premised on the idea that some people are too young to be wholly accountable for their actions, calling for a more rehabilitative and less punitive approach for dealing with young offenders.
Early this year, Harvard Kennedy School’s Vincent Schiraldi and Bruce Western wrote a column in The Washington Post calling for raising the age to 21. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy wants to raise the age to 20 in his state, but he also wants the justice system to figure out more lenient, alternative ways to handle people under 25 who commit less serious offenses.
The reason is that as medical research advances, we’re learning that the human brain isn’t fully developed until age 25. In the Post piece, Schiraldi and Western write that young adults “are more susceptible to peer pressure, less future-oriented and more volatile in emotionally charged settings.”
Further, as we wrote in August 2013, many juveniles sentenced as adults were themselves victimized as children, bolstering the argument that they deserve the opportunity to rehabilitate their lives.
Opponents of the effort, such as Livingston County Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Cremonte, say it won’t promote public safety.
“I don’t buy any of what I’ve heard today in terms of reducing recidivism,” said Cremonte, a jail administrator.
What’s clear, however, is that common practice isn’t promoting public safety. In their column Schiraldi and Western write that 78 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds released from prison are re-arrested, and about half go back to prison within three years — the highest rate among any age group.
Raising the age isn’t a simple matter – hence the 20-bill package – and there are concerns about the costs of implementation, but this may be a rare issue that can unite Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
Let’s hope so. The effort merits support in this term.