In its recent landmark decision, the Supreme Court made the right call - holding that the mandatory sentencing of a child to die in prison, without first considering the circumstances of the crime, is not consistent with our Constitution.
Last legislative session here in Maine, one of the bills that kept me up at night was the proposal to permit police to inform neighbors and other members of the public if a teenager had been arrested for certain crimes. One of the fatal flaws of the proposal was its failure to recognize the value and importance of treating juveniles differently from adults. Fortunately, the recent decision (though overlooked in comparison to those on healthcare and Arizona's profiling law) honored this vital distinction when it ruled that juveniles may not be sentenced to life without parole, without their age and the circumstances of the crime being taken into consideration.
A sentencing scheme of mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole for juveniles offenders (JLWOP) is cruel and unusual punishment. Check out more resources and a more detailed explanation of the decision in this great ACLU blog.
Too many children in America have been sentenced to life in prison without parole (JLWOP), many for being accessories to crimes that break down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or making poor decisions about who to hang out with. What we know about child brain development is that these youth are often biologically unable to make fully reasoned decisions for which they should be held accountable for the rest of their lives. We also know that juveniles are the most likely to be rehabilitated and to be able to become law abiding, contributing members of our communities. Yet tragically, in many cases, individuals who committed their crimes while they were children are destined to grow out of their impulsiveness behind bars.
This law review piece explains how out of step the U.S. is in terms of JLWOP.
"According to a Human Rights Watch report done in 2005, life without parole (LWOP) is an acceptable sentence for various crimes committed by juveniles in 42 states of the U.S. As of May 2009 there were still approximately 2,600 juveniles in the U.S. serving LWOP sentences. Nowhere else in the world are youth sentenced to such a term. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child specifically prohibits incarcerating children for life, and the United States and Somalia are the only countries in the world that have yet to ratify it."
Here in Maine, we have been moving in the right direction for years, committed to rehabilitating our youthful offenders with positive and emerging best practices, and working to deter juvenile crime. Fortunately, the recent federal decision brings us, as a nation, slightly closer to Maine and the rest of the world. Those judges meting out sentences and lawmakers creating juvenile justice policies must take into account kids' enormous capacity for rehabilitation, their lack of brain development and our responsibility as a society to give them a chance. They are not to be thrown away.
