Juvenile Justice: Redemption vs. Retribution

by Matt Kelley · 2009-02-03 15:05:00 UTC
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Forty-four U.S. states allow juveniles to be sentenced to life without parole, and there are 2,592 people serving LWOP today in our country for crimes committed as juveniles. A fascinating segment over the weekend on PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly explores this widely accepted punishment and asks whether, if given the choice, we would choose redemption or retribution.

The piece opens with the telling story of Kenneth Young (above), who followed a Florida drug dealer when he was 15 and began robbing hotels. Young clearly made juvenile decisions, and his mother was a crack addict (she doesn't split hairs, saying "if it wasn’t for the drugs, me being on drugs, then my son wouldn’t be where he’s at today.") He didn't kill anyone, but he got four consecutive life sentences and will die in prison. In fact, 25 percent of juveniles sentenced to LWOP didn't kill anyone.

Reporter Tim O' Brien talks with a Florida judge who says the strict sentence is entirely about retribution. That's the telling moment for me. It's not public safety. It's revenge. Is that the purpose of our criminal justice system?

We see in the video a woman whose daughter was brutally killed calling for life without parole for people who kill children. We then see another group, Mothers Against Murderers Association, of mothers of murder victims who advocate for rehabilitation rather than life sentences.

I can't imagine the pain of losing a loved one to a violent crime. Maybe a switch would go off and I'd want retribution, too. But hearing a judge talk about retribution shows me that our priorities are out of line.

Watch the video here.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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