Do You Know How Many Prisoners Are In For Life Without Parole Who Committed Their Crimes As Juveniles?

by rabbifink on September 3, 2010 · 6 comments

Do You Know How Many Prisoners Are In For Life Without Parole Who Committed Their Crimes As Juveniles?

I do.

It depends where you ask this question. There is one answer for the United States of America, the Land of the FREE and the Home of the Brave and there is one answer for the REST OF THE WORLD.

In the REST  OF THE WORLD there are 0 / ZERO / nil / Zed / zip / zilch / nada.

In the United States of America, the Land of the FREE and the Home of the Brave there are 2,600.

That is a lot.

Allow me to explain what this means. A 16 year old kid is involved in a homicide. He is found guilty. He gets a sentence of Life Without Parole (LWOP). That means that he goes to prison as a 16 year old and will NEVER see the light of freedom in his entire life. No matter how much he changes as a human being, no matter how productive he can be in society his crime costs him the rest of his life.

LWOP is pretty severe for an adult. But a adult is more culpable for his actions than a juvenile. Yet, me basically are willing to throw away a life for the crime of a child. I am sure we have all done stupid things as children. We grow out of them. Luckily for us we can grow out of them in freedom. For 2600 prisoners that will never have the opportunity to see freedom it won’t matter if they have grown up or been rehabilitated. The purpose of the Juvenile Justice System was once to rehabilitate youth. At this point, it is hard to imagine that is the goal if youth can be locked up forever.

It sounds pretty egregious, right?

One might be tempted to think that this would never pass a vote today. One might assume that if the legislature had a chance to give some youths who grew up and been rehabilitated they could have a chance to show that they are ready to return to society, the legislature would change the law.

SB 399 was that bill. It was voted on last week. It failed. It was close. But it failed.

I can’t believe it.

Hopefully, next time it comes up it will pass.

In the meantime I recommend watching this 30 minute video on some of the flaws of the justice system as currently constituted in the United States of America, the Land of the FREE and the Home of the Brave. It touches on SB 399 and many other important issues. Please watch it.

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Tagged as: juveniles, law, law school, Restorative Justice, SB 399, video, vimeo

  • Jim Triage

    I think you should check your facts and grammar. You might want to look into what ‘Life in prison’ means. I am sure that it changes in each state and definately is a 25 year sentence in Australia. So, as in your example, a 16yo would get released at 41 years of age. I think this is fair for murder! By they way, if you do not like the laws of the United States, why not just leave?

    • http://twitter.com/MarkSoFla Mark

      Jim -By they way, if you do not like the laws of the United States, why not just leave?

      “Love it or leave it” isn’t a particularly good argument. Some people love it and want to make it better (in their own view, of course).

    • http://finkorswim.com rabbifink

      I think you should check your facts

      These are the facts. They have been checked.

      and grammar

      Excuse the grammar please.

      You might want to look into what ‘Life in prison’ means.

      Life in prison means nothing. Life in prison WITHOUT PAROLE (the subject of this post) means exactly what it sounds like. They NEVER get out. Never. Never ever. Never ever ever.

      I am sure that it changes in each state

      YOU might want to check you facts. (They are wrong.)

      definately is a 25 year sentence in Australia

      …and the rest of the entire world. The USA is harsher on crime than any other civilized country. That is the point I am making. Congratulations to Australia for being sane.

      f you do not like the laws of the United States, why not just leave?

      I am a law student. I hope to make changes in the country I call home.

      • http://finkorswim.com rabbifink

        Hi Jim,

        Thanks for stopping by.

  • Jim Triage

    Sorry – I meant 51 years of age release age.

  • http://www.facebook.com/david.olesker David Olesker

    I’m not setting this out a social policy (there are many additional issues that would affect that) but think about this; In Jewish Law the age of criminal responsibility is 13 for a male and 12 for a female. This is in regard to being judged by a human court. As regards Heavenly judgment, you are not punished for what you do between the ages of 13 and 20 (the teen years).

    What that is showing us is that, although there is a period of life in which you even normal human beings are not fully responsible for your actions, that lack of responsibility are beyond the remit of a human tribunal to take into account. So it seems that there can be a distinction between exact justice (only enforceable by G-d) and an approximate justice enforceable by humans.

    BTW, there is a sentence available to the courts in the UK used mainly for minors convicted of murder, detention “at Her Majesty’s pleasure”. This is an indefinite sentence (usually with a minimum prescribed by the sentencing judge) that is periodically reviewed to determine if “there has been a significant change in the offender’s attitude and behaviour”. At that point the sentence is deemed complete and the offender released.

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