|
|
| Juvenile lifers spark second thoughts on law as pace of crime slows |
| By mlive.com - Angela Wittrock |
| Published: 11/10/2011 |
|
MICHIGAN --It was the late 1980s and crack cocaine and gangs were on the rise in Michigan’s cities. Drug traffickers established a sales force of mostly poor youngsters who were all too eager to make fast cash. Juvenile violence skyrocketed. In just one year, from 1986 to 1987, Michigan’s homicide rate among youngsters more than doubled, from 14 per 100,000 to 32 per 100,000. Nationally, the trend was the same. Figures from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that from 1984 to 1994, the juvenile arrest rate for violent offenses rose 78 percent. Many believed young offenders were committing more-serious crimes knowing they might only be imprisoned until 19, 21 at the oldest. Lawmakers felt they had to act. “(We) wanted to let the thugs know that they can’t hide behind their mother’s apron,” said former state Rep. Burton Leland, who helped lead get-tough juvenile reforms. The Legislature in 1988 made it easier for prosecutors to charge 15- and 16-year-olds as adults. In 1996, lawmakers made it easier to charge 14-year-olds as well, and added an “adult crime, adult time” mandate for convicted minors to be sentenced as adults. For those convicted of a range of crimes under first-degree murder, the mandatory sentence was life in prison without parole. Michigan’s crackdown mirrored a national trend. From 1983 to 1998, the number of juveniles incarcerated in adult prisons across the U.S. more than tripled, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Today, 358 Michigan prisoners are serving mandatory life for crimes committed when they were 14 to 17, second in the nation. Supporters of the initial reforms have mixed views on whether sending juveniles to prison for life has been effective. Leland, a Detroit Democrat, thinks he and his colleagues made a mistake. He points to the growing prison population, which tripled from 1980 to more than 45,000 in 2009, and the Department of Corrections budget, which grew from $193 million in fiscal 1980 to $1.94 billion this year. Even factoring in inflation, that’s nearly a fourfold increase. “Now, 25 years later, I think locking youthful offenders up for life is ridiculous,” Leland said. “Life in prison should be reserved for Hitler.” Read More. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think