Michigan’s juvenile incarceration costs soar as population, facilities plummet

By Max Bryan, The Detroit Information

The price of caring for youth behind bars or awaiting trial is rising in a number of Michigan counties, and officers attribute this to the sophisticated and costly care of this difficult inhabitants.

Youth care prices in Oakland County have doubled since 2023. Wayne and Macomb county officers say they’ve skilled larger prices as younger folks require extra sophisticated and costly care.

In fiscal years 2023 and 2024, Oakland County allotted between $800,000 and $900,000 for “state businesses,” the price range merchandise that describes the price of jailing convicted juveniles. That quantity elevated to $2 million for fiscal years 2025 and 2026. The most recent price range started on October 1.

Chritina Bujak, enterprise supervisor of the Oakland County Court docket, mentioned the price of housing a teenager has risen to $1,000 per day “in lots of circumstances.”

“(It has) elevated steadily since COVID, largely as a result of closure of most of the services and the excessive value of sustaining them,” Bujak mentioned throughout a provincial price range listening to in August.

Oakland officers and others across the state who work in juvenile justice mentioned the upper prices are resulting from many elements. Andy McKinnon, Macomb’s deputy county administrator, mentioned it prices extra to ship younger folks to different states if Michigan cannot meet their wants, and it is not simply due to transportation prices.

Out-of-state services that home youth are often privately run, which drives up the price of housing for them, McKinnon mentioned. Youths could be despatched out of state if Michigan services do not provide specialised packages, he mentioned.

“Your native packages are actually competing with the established each day charges for that state, which may improve prices in Michigan,” mentioned Jason Smith, director of the Michigan Middle for Youth Justice.

On high of that, in response to McKinnon and others, are the upper prices of hiring and retaining employees in youth prisons and well being care services and inflation, which impacts different gadgets in authorities budgets.

“To serve younger folks in residential services — and that is actually what we’re speaking about right here, long-term remedy packages or out-of-home interventions for youth — there are numerous companies and issues which are concerned, together with ensuring that a teenager is getting a top quality schooling, medical prices, any sort of remedy that they’re anticipated to take part in and full whereas they’re within the residential program. All of these prices… have elevated over time, Smith mentioned.

Prices have risen regardless of efforts in Lansing to deal with youth exterior of services, he mentioned.

Fewer younger folks behind bars, larger prices

The will increase come as youth incarceration charges have fallen sharply nationwide over the previous 20 years, in response to the Sentencing Mission, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for options to sentencing for youth and adults. The variety of younger folks held in juvenile detention facilities has fallen from 108,800 in 2000 to 27,600 in 2022 – a decline of 75%.

The variety of private and non-private services inside the justice system that look after younger folks has additionally decreased dramatically. Based on the U.S. Division of Justice’s Workplace of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Safety, Michigan had 35 private and non-private services in 2022, in comparison with 107 non-public and public services in 2000. That is a 67% lower in services.

Prices have escalated as a result of fewer younger persons are in jail and there are fewer companies. In 2020, it value as much as $336.05 per day to accommodate a minor serving a prison sentence in Michigan. That quantity remained beneath $400 via 2023, then rose to $943.39 per day in 2024 earlier than rising above $1,000 in 2025, in response to knowledge from the Michigan Division of Well being and Human Providers. That is a rise of 197.5%.

Even earlier than COVID-19, Michigan officers knew it was attainable that youth housing prices would rise. However some questioned whether or not the issue that led to this prediction performs a job within the inflated prices.

In 2018, the state Legislative Council launched a report claiming that elevating the juvenile court docket age to 17-year-olds — as an alternative of leaving the cutoff at 16 — “would probably have fiscal penalties, constructive or damaging, for each the state and the counties.”

Three years later, the state allowed prosecutors to make use of discretion in deciding whether or not to cost 17-year-olds as adults or as juveniles.

The report projected that prices to county governments would rise from $16.9 million to $34.1 million yearly statewide.

Smith of the Michigan Middle for Youth Justice mentioned he hasn’t seen an “explosion of circumstances” in Michigan, however the variety of juvenile circumstances in Oakland County has steadily elevated from 1,742 in 2021 to three,258 in 2023. In 2024, the quantity remained at 3,273, in response to a county circuit court docket report.

Whereas permitting 17-year-olds to be tried as juveniles could have elevated the general value of the operation, the associated fee per juvenile “goes down a bit as extra juveniles are positioned in an establishment,” Macomb County’s McKinnon mentioned.

“The director does not get extra cash each time they put a brand new man in, so it is the stand-up prices,” he mentioned.

Whilst case numbers have elevated, there’s a give attention to treating youth in the neighborhood via “long-term residential care.”

This strategy is in line with what Smith mentioned he believes must be the main focus of juvenile justice.

“Intervention must be individualized or remedy particular,” says Smith, who provides that “decreasing staffing ranges (in services) improves the standard of care.”

The prices of care

Whereas extra youth in a middle lowers the per-person value of incarceration, that is not essentially an excellent factor, Smith and McKinnon say.

One cause prices have risen statewide is that services have been pushed to “be aggressive in recruiting and retaining workers, particularly high quality workers,” Smith mentioned. The truth that many services can not keep enough workers is contributing to the widespread closures, he mentioned.

Wayne County has had a sequence of issues at its juvenile detention middle in Detroit — from overcrowding to staffing points — even earlier than the brand new justice advanced opened final fall on Detroit’s Russell Avenue.

Final week, three former staff of the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility introduced they had been suing the county and the power, claiming they had been fired for objecting to and reporting a directive that ordered the merging of teams of non-violent and violent youth. Wayne County spokesperson Doda Lulgjuraj mentioned the three had been fired as a result of they “not represented the very best pursuits of the County concerning the well being and security of the youth at our facility.”

Nonetheless, Lulgjuraj acknowledges the rising prices of paying for younger folks behind bars. He mentioned current Michigan juvenile justice reforms have modified the way in which counties help at-risk youth, with a stronger emphasis on community-based options to detention.

“Whereas these adjustments are vital to long-term outcomes, they’ve launched new prices, together with validated screening instruments, research-based probation requirements and expanded staffing for high quality assurance,” he mentioned.

The Wayne County Felony Justice Middle Juvenile Detention Middle spans practically 111,000 sq. toes and is licensed to accommodate 120 residents. It consists of out of doors recreation areas, basketball courts, a exercise facility, a library and even arts and crafts packages to advertise private development.

Lulgjuraj mentioned youth within the county’s juvenile detention middle are experiencing longer stays and have extra advanced wants.

“What was as soon as a short-term setting, averaging about 15 days, now requires sustained instructional, medical, psychological well being and reentry companies for a number of months and even as much as a 12 months,” he mentioned in an emailed assertion. “Rising prices replicate a broader transformation. Fewer youth are being positioned in safe care, however those that stay require deeper funding, each inside services and in community-based packages.”

Whereas out-of-state placements drive up prices, Smith says maintaining Michigan services well-staffed additionally will increase prices. These services sometimes have excessive turnover and wrestle to draw higher-wage candidates, he mentioned.

McKinnon mentioned officers have elevated salaries on the Macomb County Juvenile Justice Middle on North Rose Avenue in Mount Clemens to attempt to appeal to workers. But it surely’s nonetheless a tough occupation to get folks concerned in, he mentioned. The ability gives instructional, therapeutic and social packages for youth within the juvenile justice system.

“It is similar to every other public sector job — nurses, lecturers, law enforcement officials” who do not at all times really feel valued for the work they do, McKinnon mentioned.

However some prices are value maintaining, Smith mentioned. “There’s concern” inside the juvenile justice system about whether or not cuts will probably be made to save cash, he mentioned.

Smith mentioned the explanation some charges exist is so youth will be ready for fulfillment.

“In determining tips on how to management prices or preserve them down,” Smith mentioned, “the one factor we do not need to see is the standard of care diminished in any means, when it comes to who’s supervising the youth or the remedy that’s being offered.”

Initially revealed: October 10, 2025 at 1:45 PM EDT