A scorecard released Tuesday by Human Rights Watch provides a damning assessment of how well Michigan protects the rights of children.
The state earned an F grade because it allows child marriage; has not outlawed corporal punishment in private schools and homes; and lacks protections for children entering the juvenile justice system, among other issues.
Despite its abysmal grade and low ranking − Michigan came in 42nd in the nation − the state has plenty of company at the bottom. No state received an A or even a B on the report card, and only four states managed a C.
Michigan shares its ‘F’ with 19 other states.
Grade is based on an international treaty the U.S. hasn’t ratified
“Many Americans believe that our states and our laws protect children, but in fact, many of our laws are hopelessly out of date, and leave children all across the country vulnerable to child marriage, to violence (and) to exploitation,” said Jo Becker, who co-authored the Human Rights Watch report. “I think our scorecard is going to be a wake-up call for how much we need legislative reform to really better protect children.”
States were evaluated based on how well they protected the rights set out by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty adopted by the United Nations in 1989. The convention affirms children’s rights to education and health care, an adequate standard of living and protection from violence and exploitation.
The U.S. was instrumental in developing the ideals and language of the convention when it was adopted in 1989, and at 196 countries, it is the most ratified international treaty to date. And yet the U.S. has never ratified the treaty. It stands alone as the only member state of the U.N. unwilling to do so.
More:Child tax credit helped Michigan kids — and numbers prove it
Child marriage, child labor, juvenile justice
Other countries that have ratified the convention still struggle with implementation. But in the U.S., certain protections simply don’t exist. Across the country, children are tried as adults, allowed to marry as teenagers and used as agricultural workers below the age at which international treaties would approve.
Human Rights Watch broke down the data and issued grades at the state level, since the protection and advancement of child rights varied widely among them and are often left to state jurisdiction. It looked at four key issues: child marriage, corporal punishment, child labor and juvenile justice.
Child marriage is decreasing but remains legal in 43 states. Michigan law provides for 16- and 17-year-olds to marry if they have permission from one parent or legal guardian. According to data from the advocacy organization Unchained at Last, 5,259 children married in the state between 2000 and 2018, some as young as 14. Around 83% of these marriages were between girls and adult men.
Although Michigan does protect children from corporal punishment in public schools and alternative care settings such as foster care and group homes, Becker and her co-author Callie King-Guffey point out that it is still permissible in private schools. No state in the union prohibits corporal punishment in the home.
Americans famously bristle at attempts to dictate what they can and cannot do in the privacy of their own homes, and a 2012 study by the Brookings Institute found that 70% of Americans agreed that hard spankings are sometimes necessary in order to discipline children.
‘Cultural norms evolve’
Corporal punishment, teen marriage and work on family farms have all been defended under the banner of cultural norms. Becker says that’s no reason to uphold these practices.
“Cultural norms evolve,” said Becker. “It wasn’t that long ago that it was very acceptable for husbands to beat their wives, but we don’t consider that to be acceptable anymore. And under law, hitting an adult is considered assault. So why do we consider hitting children OK?”
Work that counts as child labor can vary based on the child’s age, the type and amount of work performed and the conditions the child was subject to. But the International Labor Organization defines it as work that “deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity and that is harmful to their physical and mental development.”
More:A Detroit nonprofit got a $1 million gift. Its approach: Stick with kids no matter what.
More:Belle Isle slide reopening halted after children are sent airborne, prompting concerns
Federal law aligns with international standards but makes a notable exemption for children employed in agriculture. Michigan law allows children as young as 13 to be employed as agricultural workers and to spend up to a weekly average of eight hours a day engaged in farm work, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“The fact that we can legally employ workers 12, 13 years old in Michigan is problematic,” said Teresa Hendricks, director of Migrant Legal Aid in Grand Rapids. She said the numbers of children working in dangerous conditions seems to be low, but she remained concerned over the number of young farm workers exposed to pesticides.
Juvenile justice guidelines
Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child agreed that children should not be tried in court until they are 14 years old. But in the U.S., more than 30,000 children younger than 12 are referred to juvenile court every year, according to the Human Rights Watch report. In Michigan, no child is technically too young to enter the juvenile justice system.
The Juvenile Justice Reform Task Force, which released recommendations on July 18, did include creating a minimum age for juvenile court jurisdiction. But that recommendation, which passed with a two-thirds consensus, would raise the minimum age only to 13, still a bit short of international standards.
Michigan also allows for children as young as 14 to be transferred to adult court under certain circumstances, such as first-degree murder. The state also allows judges to sentence minors to life without parole. Michigan has handed out more life sentences for youth than any other state.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 ruled in Miller v. Alabama that life in jail cannot be a mandatory sentence for minors − a judge must make that decision in each case. Four years later, the court decided in another case that the Miller ruling applies retroactively. Now, some Michigan inmates sentenced to life as juveniles are getting the chance to be considered for parole, but some experts bemoan the slow pace of resentencing.
“Michigan has the largest population of juvenile lifers in the country,” said Preston Shipp, senior policy counsel for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. “About 70 of them have not yet been resentenced six years after the Supreme Court mandated resentencing. Michigan is way, way behind.”
The Michigan Supreme Court recently issued a series of decisions that made the holdings in the SCOTUS decision applicable to 18-year-olds, Shipp said, adding another 300 people looking to be resentenced.
“All of that really reinforces our position that Michigan needs to do what over half the county has already done and abolish life without the possiblity of parole as a sentencing option for children,” said Shipp.
In 2012, only five states prohibited life without parole sentences for children. Now, 25 are on the list. “That’s a pretty big shift in a decade,” Becker said. “It would be fantastic to see Michigan as part of that trend.”
Jennifer Brookland covers child welfare for the Detroit Free Press in partnership with Report for America. Reach her at jbrookland@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why a human rights group gave Michigan an F on protecting children
