Bills to raise adult criminal age to 18 advance in Michigan

Michigan is among just nine states whose default is to treat 17-year-olds as adults in criminal proceedings. Fourteen- to 16-year-olds can be sentenced as adults in juvenile court or waived into adult court in some cases.

The legislation would define 17-year-olds as juveniles and make other changes. Those include prohibiting children under 18 from being detained in adult facilities — even if they are segregated from older offenders — and no longer requiring judges to put extra weight on the seriousness of a crime and a juvenile's prior record when considering if the offender should be sentenced as an adult.

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