A year ago, I wrote an editorial regarding the viral disrespect, which is prevalent in a portion of our society and how that disrespect has trickled down to our younger generations. I come to you again about this continuing problem and the lack of accountability and consequences which is present in some of our youth and in our juvenile justice system.

We are continuing to merely slap the hands of violent juvenile offenders. There seems to be very little in the way of concrete repercussions, allowing them to repeatedly be a nuisance and danger to our communities. Raising the legal age from 17 to 18 for individuals to be considered adults in our criminal justice system has exacerbated matters and has only compounded the problems we are having.

In October 2019, Governor Whitmer signed 18 bills into law as part of the “Raise the Age”, legislative package to raise the age of persons considered to be adults under the criminal justice system from 17 to 18 years of age. On October 1st , 2021, the change went into effect. Although there are some positives to this legislation, there are still problems that come with it, even though there were revisions which allow 17-year-olds who commit violent criminal offenses to be treated as adults.

Across the country and in Michigan, there have been reforms which call for the moving away from charging youths as adults and incarcerating them in adult prisons. I understand the logic of this premise and respect the fact that studies have clearly outlined the negative health and
socioeconomic outcomes of this. The current change in our law requires teens charged with committing or attempting certain violent crimes, such as murder, felony assault, first-degree rape, armed robbery, firearm offenses and others, to be charged as adults.

Prosecuting minors as adults used to be more common. But the practice has declined amid increasing awareness that young people, whose brains which are still developing, may not fully understand the consequences of their actions, as well as documented evidence that suggest teens are more likely to commit additional crimes if they are prosecuted as adults.

The problem we are seeing in the criminal justice system is even in cases where 17-year-olds have been charged as adults, it is extremely difficult to find placement for these teenage offenders. We have had two occasions in the past month where we had 17-year-olds who, because of their prior criminal behavior, were under the jurisdiction of an adult court or the
Michigan Department of Corrections and we could do nothing with them because of the circumstances. This keeps our community at risk and emboldens the undesirable and criminal behaviors which drew our attention to those individuals in the first place.

In the last month we have had a couple of investigations of a serious nature involving juveniles, who are repeat offenders, and if they had been adults, they would have been incarcerated instead of being out on the streets continuing to commit crimes and put the safety of our public
at risk.

In November, our agency investigated a string of thefts from motor vehicles, with four firearms being reported as stolen. Through investigation, we were able to identify a 19-year-old female, a 16-year-old female, a 16-year-old male, and a 17-year-old male for being the responsible parties. After items had been recovered, including three of the four firearms, the 19-year-old female was arrested. However, due to the age of the others, and the fact we were unable to find placement in a juvenile detention facility for them, they were turned over to the custody of their guardians.

The concern to the law enforcement investigators from our office and the Michigan State Police was the 17-year-old male was on tether for an attempted murder out of Kent County Courts, where he had been bound over to adult court and was out on bond awaiting trial. That court was in no hurry to revoke his bond and Kent County would not accept him based on the new charges we had against him. The young man was an Isabella County resident and due current juvenile laws, would need to be placed through Isabella County Probate Court. However, they also declined to place him. We were able to get charges through the Mecosta County
Prosecutor, however the facility we were looking to send him to, refused to accept him because they felt he was too dangerous for a juvenile facility. 

The Mecosta County Probate Court had initially advised that the male could be placed in a facility in Osceola County but were then
advised that he was too dangerous for that facility, and they refused to accept him. There was a lot of confusion and lack of answers throughout this process due to the age of the offender, his extensive criminal history, who had jurisdiction over him, and which adult court was supervising him. In the end, we were forced to leave a violent criminal, despite his age, on the streets, putting citizens at risk.

In December, our agency assisted in a vehicle pursuit on the east end of our county, which also involved deputies from Isabella and Montcalm Counties and troopers from the Michigan State Police. The suspect, a 17-year-old male under the influence of Methamphetamine, had been suspected of stealing several cars and been involved in previous pursuits in the past 24-hour in Gladwin, Gratiot, and Midland Counties. He was apprehended through a canine track after abandoning the stolen car he was driving in a field in Montcalm County. Detective Sergeant Mike Mohr and I had previously interviewed the young man in February of 2022 for thefts in Isabella and Mecosta counties. At that time, only barely being 16 years of age, he was already regularly using Methamphetamine.

In each of the instances to which I previously referenced; we had a difficult time in finding any kind of placement for the juvenile offenders. The problem comes down to a lack of availability for appropriate placement, as these offenders are sometimes too dangerous to be placed with other juveniles, but they are not of the age to legally be placed with adults. Prior to the law being changed, these two scenarios would not have been an issue. 17-year-old violent offenders would have been placed in one of our adult facilities as they were considered adults for the purposes of the criminal justice system.

We need to either begin taking a tougher approach regarding the juvenile offenders we are encountering, or there needs to be a better process and more facilities available to house violent/dangerous juveniles when necessary. The concern law enforcement officials have is that when we merely turn the juvenile over to the custody of their guardians who often times are not the juveniles’ parents, we are giving these offenders free reign to continue to terrorize the safety and well-being of our community which puts us all at an unnecessary and avoidable risk of harm.