Category: Probate Court

Judge Kathleen A Judge Kathleen Feeney Judge Kathleen Feeney is a 3rd District of the Michigan Court of Appeals court judge. Won by small margin a seat in office on January 1, 2023. Her term ends January 1, 2029. Judge Kathleen Feeney is a graduate of Michigan State University College and University of Illinois College of Law. She is a chief judge pro tem of the Kent County Circuit Court. She has practiced in the family division of the circuit court for 22 years and a seek’s election to the Michigan Court of Appeals in district 3 to replace Judge David Sawyer. Judge Kathleen Feeney helped create a Kent County Courthouse therapy dog program and the Kent County truancy court and educational neglect diversion program. Judges Are Locking Up Children for Noncriminal Offenses Like Repeatedly Disobeying Their Parents and Skipping School In Michigan, judges have sent children to locked detention centers for refusing to take medication or failing to attend online class. For testing positive for using marijuana. For repeatedly disobeying their parents. Even as other states move toward reforms focused on keeping nonviolent juvenile offenders in the community, Michigan continues to lock up children for minor transgressions that aren’t actually crimes: technical violations of probation or status offenses like truancy or staying out after curfew. A dramatic example of this occurred last summer, when the case of Grace* provoked national outrage. A 15-year-old from suburban Detroit, Grace was sent to detention for violating her probation on earlier charges of theft and assault by failing to do her online schoolwork. Her situation was unusual. She was incarcerated for breaking a single rule of her probation during a pandemic, even as her school district said it wouldn’t penalize students and the… Read More