How Michigan Stopped Saddling Children with Millions in Court Debt | Bolts

By the time Arrianna Jentink-Bristol paid off the $800 she owed in court debt, it was six months before her 18th birthday, and she had spent nearly the entirety of her teenage years on probation. Jentink-Bristol first entered Michigan’s juvenile justice system when she was 13 after getting into a physical fight with her mother, who she said was intoxicated and punching her three-year-old sister in the face. She remembered being subsequently detained and assigned a public defender who didn’t show up for one of her hearings. Following the arrest, Jentink-Bristol picked up another charge. She cycled through the juvenile justice system for two years and was detained in juvenile facilities, a mental hospital, and put on house arrest and probation, all while her bills continued to stack up. 
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