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Life Sentence for Juveniles?

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

May 12, 2009 Letter to the Editor, NY Times Life Sentence for Juveniles? To the Editor: Re ?Justices Agree to Take Up Life-Without-Parole Sentences for Young Offenders? (news article, May 5): There are currently almost 2,500 people serving sentences of life without parole for crimes committed before age 18. Fifty-nine percent received their sentences for their first-ever criminal conviction. Sixteen percent were between 13 and 15 when they committed their crimes, and 26 percent were sentenced under a felony murder charge where their offenses did not involve carrying a weapon or pulling a trigger. Our society recognizes that juveniles differ from adults in their thinking, reasoning and decision-making capacities. Research also demonstrates that adolescents actually use their brains in fundamentally different ways from adults...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on May 12, 2009 (boomark / email).