Youth
We as a nation need to stop throwing away our children. Kids are still maturing and developing. As a result, society treats kids and adults differently in a wide array of contexts: kids cannot drive, sit on juries, enter contracts, join the military, smoke, drink, marry or hold political office. Yet we lock them up and literally throw away the key.
In the United States each year, children as young as 13 are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without any opportunity for release.; we consider charging 5-year-olds with murder. No other country in the world does this to its young people.
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Making matters worse, we condemn black youth to life in prison without the possibility of parole at 18 times the rate of white youth and Latino youth at five times the rate of whites.
Despite a global consensus that children cannot be held to the same standards of responsibility as adults and recognition that children are entitled to special protection and treatment, the United States allows children to be treated and punished as adults.
Young people need to be held accountable for their criminal actions in a way that allows them to grow and develop into successful adults. We need laws that reflect kids’ capacity for rehabilitation, that protect public safety and are fiscally sound.
Resources
End Juvenile Life Without Parole (2009 resource): Approximately 2,570 children are sentenced to juvenile life without parole or "JLWOP" in the United States.
Life Without a Chance (2011 blog post): California’s Senate Bill 9 would improve the law to reflect kids’ capacity for rehabilitation
Federal Court Rules ACLU Lawsuit Challenging Juvenile Life Without Parole Can Proceed (2011 press release)
Hill v. Snyder (2011 case): The ACLU and the ACLU of Michigan filed this lawsuit on behalf of nine Michigan citizens who were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for crimes committed when they were minors.
Second Chances: Juveniles Serving Life Without Parole In Michigan Prisons (2006 report)
From Filthy Boys Prison to New Beginnings: Hill Staffers Walk a Mile in Youthful Offenders' Shoes (2011 blog post)
Lift Children Out of the Criminal Justice System – Don't Lock Them Away (2011 blog)
Sentencing Children to Die in Prison (2011 blog)
