Costs At Issue For Raising Age On Adult Criminal Prosecution

'The benefits will far outweigh the short-term, upfront costs,' says one expert

By Evan Carter | March 26, 2018

State legislators are considering a package of bills that would cause Michigan’s criminal justice system to handle most cases involving 17-year-olds to be tried in juvenile courts, instead of adult courts.

Currently, when a 17-year-old is tried for a crime, law enforcement has no choice but to send the teen through the adult court system. A key part of the package lawmakers are considering is House Bill 4607, which would define those under 18 as juveniles, requiring that the cases involving 17-year-olds begin in the juvenile court system.

The bills would not stop prosecutors from being able to ask judges to try a 17-year-old in an adult court when the youth has been accused of a heinous crime such as premeditated murder or rape.

The bills are currently in the House Committee on Law and Justice.

Michigan is currently one of only five states – along with Georgia, Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin – in which 17-year-olds are automatically tried in adult courts.

There are numerous differences between the juvenile and adult court systems. In the juvenile court system, parents are notified when a youth is tried for a crime, and they can be included in determining the best treatment method.

In the juvenile court system, many youths are “deferred” from a trial and instead are given community service or sent to get rehabilitation. Additionally, a youth’s criminal record is not transferred over to a “permanent” record when he is determined to be an adult, which is currently at age 17.

Jason Smith, director of youth justice policy for the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency, has argued that since adult courts and prisons are designed for adults, they’re less equipped to deal with youth. Smith also told Michigan Capitol Confidential that adult jails and prisons can be more dangerous for 17-year-olds.

“Young people who are prosecuted, adjudicated and served in the juvenile justice system have better outcomes than youth in the adult system,” Smith said. “Raising the age and keeping as many kids as possible in the juvenile justice system will reduce re-offending, keep communities safer and lower juvenile justice system costs over time.”

The package of bills is causing concern among some county officials who wonder how much more money the juvenile criminal justice system will have to spend to accommodate the change.

Currently the state pays 100 percent of the costs of sending an adult to prison, while counties must take on the entire cost of detaining and rehabilitating youth. Counties can apply to have 50 percent of these costs reimbursed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. One of the bills under consideration, House Bill 4789, would defray some of the costs associated with raising the age.

A study recently presented to the Criminal Justice Policy Commission suggests that directing 17-year-olds to the juvenile court system would increase the number of people going through that system by 2,517 per year. The study estimates that this could cost counties an additional $16.9 million to $34.0 million per year and the state an additional $17.2 million to $26.9 million per year. The study was titled "The cost of raising the age of juvenile justice in Michigan" and was done by Hornby Zeller Associates Inc.

Some county probate court judges are calling the cost estimates too low. Those producing the study were unable to work with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which controls the Child Care Fund that reimburses counties for certain costs associated with youth detention and rehabilitation.

Smith said that when some other states have raised the age at which a youth is tried as an adult, the cost has been less than first projected.

“I think it’s time now that people get serious about raising the age and bring our young people into the juvenile justice system,” Smith said. “The benefits will far outweigh the short-term, upfront costs.”

The Michigan Association for Family Court Administration, which represents and advocates on behalf of family court administration in the state, said in a statement that it supports raising the age at which individuals are tried as adults “in principle as long as it is adequately and sustainably funded and resourced across the state.”

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

Average Teacher Pay Doesn’t Support Liberal Site’s Narrative? Use It Anyway

Vox says never mind, the narrative is right nationwide if not in every state

By Tom Gantert | March 24, 2018

The liberal news media site Vox claims that a recently released data base shows that teachers in the U.S. are underpaid. It lets users look up the alleged underpayment level for each state.

“Your state’s teachers are underpaid,” the Vox article declared. “Find out by how much.”

In its entry for Michigan, the website states, “It looks like all salaries have been increasing, but that’s a bit misleading because we have to adjust for inflation. This will tell us if teachers in your state have actually been getting raises or not.”

Vox claims that Michigan teachers have had their pay cut by 12.1 percent over a recent 15-year period. The site claims that since 2010 (the year voters elected a GOP governor and Legislature) pay for Michigan’s teachers has been cut 4.2 percent. Vox uses data from the National Education Association annual surveys.

But Vox makes the inaccurate assumption that the statewide average salary of all Michigan teachers is an indication of whether pay levels for individuals are increasing or decreasing.

They are not. This is especially true in a state like Michigan, where the highest-paid teachers are those who have the highest seniority. The compensation of virtually all conventional public school teachers in this state is specified in union pay scales in each district that are based on years of experience and the number of extra academic credits accumulated.

State records show that the actual salaries earned by most Michigan teachers with less seniority – those who have not reached the top of the union pay scale — do benefit from periodic pay hikes. The exceptions occur among the handful of school districts that are in dire financial situations.

For example, the average teacher salary at Troy Public Schools was $74,459 in 2016-17, according to the Michigan Department of Education. The average amount was $72,871 in 2013-14, which when adjusted for inflation would be $75,650 in 2017 dollars.

By Vox’s rationale, that would mean Troy teachers have taken a pay cut. Except, that’s now how it works.

Changes in a particular district’s average teacher salary is mostly a product of how many highly paid, high-seniority teachers are retiring and being replaced by newer teachers lower down on the union pay scale.

At the top of the pay scale, a Troy teacher makes $91,250. A new hire starts at $43,000. In 2017, Troy advertised for nearly 90 open teaching jobs.

And Troy teachers received raises from 2013-14 to 2016-17, as spelled out in their union contract. A Troy teacher with a bachelor’s degree who started in 2012-13 would have made $41,297 that year, which by 2016-17 would have risen to $50,900.

Vox reporter Alvin Chang said he thinks average salary data does capture general trends going on in the country.

In an email, Chang wrote: “I think your anxiety with the data isn't quite framed correctly. For example, when we think about average incomes of Americans, we don’t say: This is meaningless, because what if a retiring worker is replaced by a young worker, which brings down the average.”

“Rather, I think the question is: Have the demographics of teachers changed drastically in the time frame the data covers? And the answer is: Kind of. The average age nationwide has stayed about the same (and same for most states), but there are a few more teacher under 30, as well as a few more teachers over 50, and so fewer teachers in that 30-49 age range. At the end of the day, the median age evens out,” Change wrote.

He continued: “So in this case, average salaries tell us quite a bit, and I have a subsequent story looking at health care premiums, which fills out the picture a bit. Does this tell an exact story about every state and every school district? No. But does it capture general trends in each state, as well as nationwide? I believe it does.”

There is a website that tracks salaries of nearly all public sector employees in Michigan. OpenTheBooks.com is a nonprofit whose mission is to “to capture and post all disclosed spending at every level of government.” The nonprofit has posted several years’ worth of salary data for almost every government worker in Michigan and other states.