Holmes Youthful Trainee Act

If a young adult in your life is facing a criminal charge, you need our experienced defense lawyers to protect his or her future. A conviction of any crime can have a major impact on an individual’s future including influencing his or her ability to get an education, to obtain a job or to have access to other opportunities.

The HYTA Provides Alternative Sentencing to Give a New Beginning to Teens

Under state law, the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, or HYTA, recognizes young people make mistakes and should not have their entire life ruined by one wrongdoing. The HYTA gives young people a chance at a future and allows these individuals to have a second chance. Our team at Grewal understands how the HYTA can benefit your child in order to protect his or her freedom.

Requirements of the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act

In order to be eligible to seek sentencing under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act the person being charged must be between the ages of seventeen and twenty. The Michigan law allows for participation if someone pleads guilty to a crime that took place within the three-year window from their seventeenth to twentieth birthdays.

Michigan law states:

If an individual pleads guilty to a criminal offense, committed on or after the individual’s seventeenth birthday but before his or her twenty-fourth birthday, the court of record having jurisdiction of the criminal offense may, without entering a judgment of conviction and with the consent of that individual, consider and assign that individual to the status of youthful trainee. If the offense was committed on or after the individual’s twenty-first birthday but before his or her twenty-fourth birthday, the individual shall not be assigned to youthful trainee status without the consent of the prosecuting attorney.

By entering into the program an individual has the chance to complete a trainee probationary term. Once the term is completed the criminal conviction will not be entered on the young person’s record. If certain crimes were committed, the person being charged with the crime is not eligible to participate in HYTA. The types of crimes exempted from the program include certain sex crimes, some substance abuse offenses along with crimes where life imprisonment is a potential penalty if convicted.

Sex Crime Exemption

While individuals convicted of some sex crimes are not eligible to participate in HYTA, there are some exceptions that allow for participation. A young person who has been charged with 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct or statutory rape may qualify for an exemption. Michigan law sets the age of consent at 16, anyone over the age of 18 who engages in sexual activities with a person 16 or younger may face statutory rape charges.

Sometimes a young person over the age of 17 engages in sexual conduct with someone under age 16. Often the two individuals attend school together and are close in age. In these cases, a young person may be able to qualify for the HYTA. To qualify it is the job of your child’s attorney to convince the judge he or she deserves a second chance.

Our Michigan youth crimes defense attorneys have gotten young people with sex crime charges a chance to participate in HYTA. We also have experience getting young adults who have been charged with other crimes into the program. It is our job to convince the judge your son or daughter deserves a second chance and should participate in the Holmes Youthful Trainee Program.