Wisconsin Bar Association Wants to Undo Law Putting 17-Year-Olds Into Adult Court

Tuesday, September 21st, 2021 -- 8:06 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) The Wisconsin Bar Association wants to undo a state law that automatically puts 17-year-old suspects into adult court.

The Wisconsin Bar Association wants to undo a state law that automatically puts 17-year-old suspects into adult court. President Cheryl Furstace Daniels says there are more resources and more opportunities for kids to be rehabilitated if they can stay in juvenile court.

"The kids who get swept up into the system need to have much the same kind of possibilities for them as well. Most of them need that and if we do that we will be repaid by most of them doing exactly what we want them to do, becoming the good citizens that we want them to be."

Daniels says there are more and better opportunities for youth offenders to turn their lives around if they stay out of adult court. "Because that's that's our goal because at the end that's the best reparation to society, is for that offender not to offend again and to go on and become a useful Citizen and resident of Wisconsin."

Daniels says the move is consistent with the Bar's call for fewer jail terms for people in court. "The legal system break under the weight of a system that is punitive and that ends up costing more and more as the years go on the more punitive that we are."

Daniels says young offenders will have more chances to turn their lives around in the youth court system as opposed to adult court. Wisconsin is one of only three states that automatically considers 17-year-olds as adult offenders.

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