Juvenile LWOP Gets a Little More Unusual

by Matt Kelley · 2009-07-14 05:12:00 UTC
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The Texas legislature this year eliminated life without parole for juveniles and reduced other sentences for juveniles, taking a leadership role in a reform that is surely on its way to other states in the years ahead. Texas is only the seventh state to abolish juvenile LWOP - I posted a map in November of the population in each state of prisoners convicted as children.

The blogs Sentencing Law and Policy and Grits for Breakfast pointed out recently that the mainstream media and advocacy organizations barely covered this development. (I'm guilty as well - it took the SLP post for me to learn about this encouraging new law). Although this story seems to have slipped through the cracks, many advocates are sensing an opportunity right now on juvenile sentencing reform - with two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this fall and a bill before the House to mandate parole for all juveniles.

The U.S. has nearly 2,500 prisoners serving life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles - and only three other countries have any juveniles LWOP prisoners - Israel has seven, South Africa has four and Tanzania has one. Tell me that's not unusual.

From a Miller-McCune article last week (which also missed the Texas reform):

"There is so much attention on this issue right now," says Baylor Law School professor Mark Osler, who has testified in favor of the proposed House bill, H.R. 2289. "I think in part it's because you have groups doing a good job advocating on it, and the idea is becoming more and more prevalent — that instead of wholesale change, we are smoothing off the rougher edges of the justice system, and that includes a focus on children."

..."Juvenile crime has been going down, so people are starting to use that as political cover to raise the issue of why we have these overly punitive juvenile justice policies in place," said Ashley Nellis of the Sentencing Project. "And it's just a good time to be re-examining policies fiscally because incarceration is expensive, and life sentences are the most expensive."

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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