Raise the Age bills | Michigan Radio
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Raise the Age bills

Gov. Whitmer signs bills raising age of Michigan's juvenile offenders

By • Oct 31, 2019
person in grey hoodie wearing handcuffs
oconairekat / Adobe Stock

Starting in October 2021, 17-year-olds will no longer automatically be treated as adults in Michigan’s criminal justice system.

Michigan will join the vast majority of other states that treat 17-year-olds as children. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the bills Thursday.

Raise the Age bills on their way to governor’s desk

By • Oct 16, 2019
The Michigan State Capitol.
Steve Carmody / Michigan Radio

The governor will now have to decide if the criminal justice system should stop automatically treating 17-year-olds as adults.

A bipartisan package of bills is now headed to Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s desk. They would still give prosecutors discretion to charge 17-year-olds as adults for serious crimes, but that would no longer be the way they are automatically treated.

Following compromise over funding, "raise the age" bills head to Senate floor

By • Oct 10, 2019
A courtroom
Bill Ledbetter / Flickr - http://j.mp/1SPGCl0

Bills that would raise the age of the juvenile court’s jurisdiction from 17 to 18-years-old are one step closer to the governor’s desk.

This means that 17-year-olds would no longer be automatically be tried as adults or placed with adults in the criminal justice system. But prosecutors would still have discretion to charge them as adults based on the offense.